GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND AN EXPOSURE BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX AUTHOR OF " I,YING WPS," " FATAI, THIRTEEN," " THE FOUR FACES," ETC. TORONTO THOMAS IvANGTON 1915 Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS CHAP, To THE Reader . page 7 I. How THE Truth was Hidden 11 II. The Kaiser's Secret Re- vealed 22 III. How THE Public were Bamboozled . 36 IV. Under the Kaiser's Thumb 57 V. How Spies Work 66 VI. Some Methods of Secret Agents 78 VII. Master - Spies and Their Cunning . ~ . 93 VIII. The Spy and the I^aw 116 IX. A Remarkable Spy . 138 X. Some Recent Cases . 152 XI. 27,000 Aliens at I^arge in Great Britain 171 XII. How to End the Spy Peril 196 304703 TO THE READER From the outbreak of war until to-day I have hesitated to write this book. But I now feel impelled to do so by a sense of duty. The truth must be told. The peril must be faced. Few men, I venture to think, have been more closely associated with, or know more of the astounding inner machinery of German espionage in this country, and in France, than myself. Though the personnel of the Confidential Department established at Whitehall to deal with these gentry have, during the past six years, come and gone, I have, I believe, been the one voluntary assistant who has remained to watch and note, both here and in Belgium — where the German headquarters were es- tablished — the birth and rapid growth of this ever-spreading canker-worm in the nation's heart. 8:-. GjJp:SC^ SPIES IN ENGLAND l''kjsi 'na.iakr.ni^st. This is no work ©f fiction, but of solid and serious fact. I write here of what I know ; and, further, I write with the true spirit of loyalty. Though sorely tempted, at this crisis, to publish certain docu- ments, and make statements which would, I know, add greatly to the weight of this book, I refrain, because such statements might reveal certain things to the enemy, including the identity of those keen and capable officials who have performed so nobly their work of contra-espionage . Yet to-day, with the fiercest war in history in progress, with our bitterest enemy threaten- ing us with invasion, and while we are com- pelled to defend our very existence as a nation, yet Spies are nobody's business ! It is because the British public have so long been officially deluded, reassured and lulled to sleep, that I feel it my duty to now speak out boldly, and write the truth after a silence of six years. Much contained within these covers will probably come as a complete revelation to many readers who have hitherto, and perhaps not unjustly, regarded spies as the mere picturesque creation of writers of fiction. At GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 9 the outset, however, I wish to give them an assurance that, if certain reports of mine — which now repose in the archives of the Confidential Department — were published, they would create a very considerable sensa- tion, and entirely prove the truth of what I have ventured to write within these covers. I desire, further, to assure the reader that, since 1905, when I first endeavoured to perform what I considered to be my duty as an Englishman, I have only acted from the purest patriotic motives, while, from a pecuniary point of view, I have lost much by my endeavour. The knowledge that in the past, as now, I did what I conceived to be but my duty to my country, was, in itself, an all-sufficient reward ; and if, after perusal of this book, the reader will only pause for a moment and reflect upon the very serious truths it con- tains, then I shall have accomplished all I have attempted. We have, since the war, had a rude awaken- ing from the lethargy induced by false official assurances concerning the enemy in our midst. 10 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND It is for the nation to now give its answer, and to demand immediate and complete satisfaction from those who were directly responsible for the present national peril, which, if unchecked, must inevitably result in grave disaster. WILLIAM LE QUEUX. Hawson Court, Buckfastleigh, Devon. February, 1915. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND CHAPTER I HOW THE TRUTH WAS HIDDEN The actual truth regarding Germany's secret and elaborate preparations for a raid upon our shores has not yet been told. It will, however, I venture to think, cause consider- able surprise. A few curious facts have, it is true, leaked out from time to time through the columns of the newspapers, but the authorities — and more especially the Home Office, under Mr. McKenna — have been most careful to hide the true state of affairs from the public, and even to lull them into a false sense of security, for obvious reasons. The serious truth is that German espionage and treasonable propaganda have, during past years, ^been allowed by a slothful military administration to take root so deeply, that the authorities to-day find themselves powerless to eradicate its pernicious growth. "^ Unfortunately for myself — for by facing the British public and daring to tell them 12 GERIVIAN SPIES IN ENGLAND the truth, I suffered considerable pecuniary loss — I was in 1905 the first person to venture to suggest to the authorities, by writing my forecast '' The Invasion of England," the most amazing truth, that Germany was secretly harbouring serious hostile intentions towards Great Britain. The reader, I trust, will forgive me for referring to my own personal experiences, for I do so merely in order to show that to the grievous, apathetic attitude of the Govern- ment of the time the present scandalous state of affairs is entirely due. I had lived in Germany for a considerable period. I had travelled up and down the country; I had lived their "home life''; I had lounged in their officers' clubs ; and I had indulged in the night-life of Berlin ; and, further, I had kept my eyes and ears open. By this, I had gained certain knowledge. Therefore I resolved to write the truth, which seemed to me so startling. My daring, alas ! cost me dearly. On the day prior to the publication of the book in question, Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, then Premier, rose in the House of Commons and — though he had never had an oppor- tunity of seeing my work — deliberately con- demned it, declaring that it '' should never have been written " because it was calculated to create alarm. Who, among the readers of this book, would condemn anything he had not even seen ? Now the last thing the GERlVrAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Ki Government desired was that public attention should be drawn to the necessity of preparing against German aggression. Once the real fear of the German peril had taken root in our islands, there would in- stantly have been an irresistible demand that no money should be spared to equip and prepare our fighting forces for a very possible war — and then good-bye to the four-hundred- a-year payments to Members, and those vast sums which were required to bribe the electors with Social Reform. In the columns of the Times I demanded by what right the Prime Minister had criti- cised a book which he had never even seen, and in justice to the late Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman I must here record that he apologised to me, privately, for committing what he termed a '* poHtical error." Political error ! If there had been no further *' political errors '* in this dear old country of ours, we should have no war to- day. The Government was bent upon suppressing the truth of my earnest appeal ; hence I was held up to derision, and, in addition, de- nounced on all hands as a ^' scaremonger.*' Now, at the outset, I wish to say that I am no party politician. My worst enemy could never call me that. I have never voted for a candidate in my life, for my motto has ever been '' Britain for the British." My appeal to the nation was made in all honesty 14 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND of purpose, and in the true sense of the patriotism of one who probably has the ear of a wide pubHc. The late lyord Roberts realised this. Our national hero, who, like myself, was uttering words of solemn warn- ing, knew what pressure the Government were endeavouring to place upon me, and how they meant to crush me ; therefore on November 29th, 1905, he wTote the follow- ing :— " Speaking in the House of Lords on the 10th July, 1905, I said : — * It is to the people of the country I appeal to take up the question of the Army in a sensible practical manner. For the sake of all they hold dear, let them bring home to them- selves what would be the condition of Great Britain if it were to lose its wealth, its power, its position/ The catastrophe that may happen if we still remain in our present state of unpreparedness is vividly and forcibly illustrated in Mr. Le Queux's new book, which I recommend to the perusal of every one who has the welfare of the British Empire at heart." But alas ! if the public disregarded the earnest warnings of ** Bobs,'' it was scarcely surprising that it should disregard mine — especially after the Prime Minister had condemned me. My earnest appeal to the nation met only with jeers and derision, I was caricatured at the music halls, and some- body wrote a popular song which asked, *' Are we Downhearted ? *' Neither the British public, nor the authori- ties, desired the truth, and, ostrich-like, GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 15 buried their heads in the sand. Germany would never dare to go to war, we w^re told, many wiseacres adding, *' Not in our time.'' The violent storm of indignation sweeping upon my unfortunate head, I confess, stag- gered me. The book, which had cost me eighteen months of hard work, and a journey of ten thousand miles in a motor-car, was declared to be the exaggerated writing of a Jingo, a sensationalist, and one who desired to stir up strife between nations. I was both puzzled and pained. Shortly afterwards, I met Mr. (now Lord) Haldane —then War Minister — at dinner at a countiy house in Perthshire, when, in his breezy way, he assured me over the dinner- table that be knew Germany and German intentions better than m3^self , and that there would never be war. And he w^axed humorous at my expense, and scorned Lord Roberts's warnings. The Kaiser's cleverness in ingratiating him- self with certain English Statesmen, officers, and writers is really amazing, yet it was — though at that time unsuspected — part of the great German plot formed against us. As an instance how the Emperor was cleverly misleading the British Cabinet, Lord Haldane, speaking on June 29th, 1912, at a pubHc dinner, at which Baron Marschall von Bieber- stein, the German Ambassador, was present, said : — . 16 GERMAN vSPIES IN ENGLAND " I speak of one whom we admire in this country and regard as one of ourselves. " He (the Kaiser) knows our language and our institutions as we do, and he speaks as we do. " The German Emperor is something more than an Emperor — he is a man, and a great man. He is gifted by the gods with the highest gift that they can give — ^I use a German word to express it — Geist (spirit). He has got Geist in the highest degree. He has been a true leader of his people — a leader in spirit as well as in deed. He has guided them through nearly a quarter of a century, and preserved unbroken peace. I know no record of which a monarch has better cause to be proud. In every direction his activities have been remarkable. " He has given his country that splendid fleet that we who know about fleets admire ; he has preserved the tradition of the greatest army the world has ever seen ; but it is in the arts of peace that he has been equally great. He has been the leader of his people in education, and in the solution of great social questions. " That is a great record, and it makes one feel a sense of rejoicing that the man who is associated with these things should be half an EngHshman. I have the feehng very strongly that in the last few years Germany and England have become much more hke each other than they used to be. It is because we have got so much like each other that a certain element of rivalry comes in. " We two nations have a great common task in the world — to make the world better. It is because the German Emperor, I know, shares that conviction profoundly that it gives me the greatest pleasure to give you the toast of his name." The Government, having sought to point the finger of ridicule at my first warning, must have been somewhat surprised at the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 17 phenomenal success which the book in ques- tion attained, for not only were over a million copies sold in different editions in English, but it was translated into no fewer than twenty-six languages — including Japanese — and, further, was adopted as a text-book in the German Army — though I may add tliat the details I gave of various vulnerable points around our coasts were so disguised as to be of little use to the enemy. I had had a disheartening experience. Yet worse was to come. A couple of years later, while making certain inquiries in Germany with a view to continuing my campaign, and my endeavour to disclose the real truth to the British public, I discovered, to my surprise, the existence of a wide-spread system of German espionage in England. Just about that time Colonel Mark Lock- wood, the Member for Epping, asked a question in the House of Commons regarding the reported presence of spies in Essex. For his pains he was, of course, like myself, promptly snubbed. A week later, I ventured to declare, at a meeting in Perth, that in our midst we were harbouring a new, most dangerous, and well-organised enemy — a horde of German spies. German spies in England ' Who ever heard such wild rubbish ! This completed the bitterness of public opinion againvSt me. The 18 GERIVIAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Press unanimously declared that I had spoken wiltul untruths ; my statements were refuted in leading articles, and in consequence of my endeavour to indicate a grave national peril, a certain section of the Press even went so far as to boycott my writings altogether I Indeed, more than one first-class London newspaper which had regularly published my novels — I could name them, but I will not — refused to print any more of my work ! I was, at the same time, inundated with letters from persons who openly abused me and called me a liar, and more than one anonymous communication, which I have still kept, written in red ink and probably from spies themselves, for the caHgraphy is distinctly foreign, threatened me with death. Such was my reward for daring to awaken the country to a sense of danger. It caused me some amusement, I must confess, yet it also taught me a severe lesson — the same bitter lesson which the British public, alas ! taught Lord Roberts, who was so strenuously endeavouring to indicate the danger of our unpreparedness. It told me one plain truth, a truth spoken in the words of the noble General himself, who, with a sigh, one day said to me, '' Nothing, I fear, will arouse the public to a sense of danger until they one day awaken and find war declared." On the day following my speech, the German Press, which published reports of it. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND I9 called me '' the German-hater,'* by which epithet I am still known in the Fatherland. The editor of a certain London daily news- paper told me to my face : '* There are no spies in England " ; adding, *' You are a fool to alarm the public by such a statement. Nobody believes you." I, however, held my own views, and felt that it was my duty to act in one of two ways. Either I should place the confidential information and documents which I had gathered, mostly from German sources, in the hands of the Press, and thus vindicate myself ; or give them over to the Government, and allow them to deal with them in a befitting and confidential manner. The latter attitude I deemed to be the correct one, as an Englishman — even though I have a foreign name. At the War Office the officials at first sniffed, and then, having carefully examined the documents, saw at once that I had discovered a great and serious truth. For this reason I have never sought, until now, to vindicate myself in the public eye ; yet I have the satisfaction of knowing that from that moment, until this hour of writing, a certain nameless department, known only by a code-number, — I will refer to it as the Confidential Department, — has been unre- mitting in its efforts to track down German secret agents and their deadly work. Through six years I have been intimate with its workings. I know its splendid staff, 20 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND its untiring and painstaking efforts, its thor- oughness, its patriotism, and the astuteness of its head director, who is one of the finest EngHshmen of my acquaintance. There are men who, Hke myself, have since done work for it both at home and abroad, and at a considerable expenditure — patriotic men who have never asked for a single penny to cover even their expenses — men who have presented reports which have cost them long journeys abroad, many a watchful night, much personal danger, and considerable out- lay. Yet all the time the Home Office ridiculed the idea of spies, and thus misled the public. The archives of the secret department in question, which commenced its activity after the presentation of my array of facts, would be an amazing revelation to the public, but, alas ! would, if published, bring ignominy, disaster, and undying shame to certain per- sons among us towards whom the Kaiser, the Master-Spy, has, in the past decade, been unduly gracious. I could name British spies. I could write things here, shameful facts, which would, like my first allegations, be scouted with disbelief, although I could prove them in these pages. But, as a Briton, I will not reveal facts which repose in those secret files, records of traitorous shame, of high-placed men in England who have lived for years in the enjoyment of generous allowances from a GERIVIAN SPIES IlbT ENGIvAND ,21 mysterious source. To write here the truth I feel sorely tempted, in spite of the law of libel. But enough ! We are Englishmen. Let us wipe off the past, in the hope that such traitorous acts will never be repeated, and that at last our eyes are open to the grave dangers that beset us. To-day we have awakened, and the plain truth of all for which I have contended is surely obvious to the world. CHAPTER II THE kaiser's secret REVEAI.ED Before proceeding further with this exposure of the clever and dastardly German plot against England, the reader will probably be interested in a confidential report which, in the course of my investigations, travelling hither and thither on the Continent, I was able to secure, and to hand over to the British Government for their consideration. It was placed, in confidence, before certain members of the Cabinet, and is still in the archives of the Confidential Department. The report in question, I obtained — more fully than I can here reproduce it — from an intimate personal friend, who happened to be a high functionary in Germany, and closely associated with the Kaiser. Germany has spies in England ; we, too, have our friends in Germany. Shortly after the Zeppelin airship had been tested and proved successful, a secret Council was held at Potsdam, in June, 1908, at which the Emperor presided. Prince Henry of Prussia — a clever man whom I know personally — the representatives of the leading GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 23 Federal States, and the chiefs of the army and navy — including my informant — being present. I regret that I am not at liberty to give the name of my informant, for various reasons. One is that, though a German of high position, he holds pro-British views, and has, in consequence, more than once furnished me with secret information from Berlin which has been of the greatest use to our Intelligence Department. Suffice it to say that his iden- tity is well known at Whitehall, and that, although his report was at first regarded with suspicion, the searching investigation at once made resulted in its authenticity being fully established. That the Kaiser had decided to make war, the British Government first knew by the report in question — notwithstanding all the diplomatic juggling, and the publication of Blue Books and White Books. The French Yellow Book published in the first week of December, 1914, indeed, came as confirma- tion — if any confirmation were necessary — from the hps of King Albert of Belgium himself. Now at this secret Council the Kaiser appeared, dressed in naval uniform, pale, determined, and somewhat nervous and un- strung. For more than two hours he spoke of the danger confronting the German Empire from within and without, illustrating his speech by many maps and diagrams, as well 24 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND as some well-executed models of air-craft, designed for the war now proceeding. At first, the Emperor's voice was almost inaudible, and he looked haggard and worn. *'' Gentlemen,'' the Emperor, in a low, hoarse voice, commenced, '' in calling this Council this evening, I have followed the Divine command. Almighty God has always been a great and true ally of the House of Hohenzollern, and it is to Him that I — just as my august ancestors did — look for inspira- tion and guidance in the hour of need. After long hours of fervent prayer Hght has, at last, come to me. You, my trusted councillors and my friends, before whom I have no secrets, can testify that it has been, ever since I ascended the throne, my most ardent desire to maintain the peace of the world and to cultivate, on a basis of mutual respect and esteem, friendship and goodwill ♦ The German Government, by some means, learnt that I was in possession of a report of this secret speech of the Kaiser's, and a curious incident resulted. It was my intention, in September, 1908, to write a book pointing out that Germany meant war. With that object I gave to my friend Mr. Eveleigh Nash, the publisher, of Fawside House, Covent Garden^ the opening chapters of the manuscript, together with the speech in question. He locked them, in my presence, in a drawer in his writing-table in his private room. Two da5^s later, when Mr. Nash opened that drawer he found they had been stolen ! German Secret Agents undoubtedly committed the theft — which was reported in certain newspapers at the time — for I have since learnt that my manuscript is now in the archives of the Secret Service in Berhn ! This, in itself, is sufficient proof as showing how eager the Kaiser was to suppress his declaration of war. It was fortunate that I had kept a copy of the Emperor's speech. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 25 with all the nations on the globe. I am aware that the course followed by me did not always meet with your approval, and that on many an occasion you would have been glad to see me use the mailed fist, rather than the silken glove chosen by me in my dealings with certain foreign nations. It was a source of profound grief to me to see my best intentions misunderstood, but bullet- proof against public censure and criticism, and responsible only to the I^ord above us for my acts, I calmly continued to do what I considered to be my holy duty to the Fatherland. True to the great traditions of Prussia, and the House of Hohenzollern, I believed in the necessity of maintaining a great army and an adequate navy as the best guarantee of peace. In our zeal for the preservation of peace Vv^e were compelled to keep pace with the ever-increasing armaments of our neighbours, until the limit seems now to have been reached. '' We find ourselves now face to face with the most serious crisis in the history of our new German Empire. Owing to the heavy taxation, and the enormous increase in the cost of living, the discontent of the masses is assuming alarming proportions, and even infecting the middle and upper classes, which have, up to the present time, been the strongest pillar of the monarchy. But worst of all, there are unmistakable signs that the discontent is spreading even among the 26 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND troops, and that a secret well-organised anti- military movement is afoot, calculated to destroy all discipline, and to incite both my soldiers and sailors to open disobedience and rebelHon. As, according to the reports of my Secret Service, a similar movement is making itself felt in nearly all the states of Europe; all indications point to the fact, which admits, indeed, no longer of any doubt, that we have to deal with an international revolutionary organisation whose voiced ob- ject is the overthrowing of throne and altar, and the establishment of a Republican govern- ment. '* The gravity of the situation can, in no way, be underrated. In the last session of the Reichstag it was openly admitted that never before had there been among the German population so many friends of a republican form of government as at the present time, and the idea is rather gaining ground, not only among the masses, but also the classes, though I have given the strictest orders to m^^ Government for its suppression. The fact, however, remains, and I cannot afford to ignore it. *' ' Breakers ahead ! ' is the call of the helmsman at the Imperial ship of state, and I am ready to heed it. How to find an honourable and satisfactory solution of the problem is a question to which I have devoted the closest attention during these last months. The outlook is, I admit, dark, but we need GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 27 not despair, for God, our great ally, has given into our hands the means of saving our Empire from the dangers which are threaten- ing its happiness and welfare. You know what I mean. It is that wonderful invention which His Excellency Count Zeppelin was enabled, through the grace of the Lord, to make for the safeguarding and glory of our beloved Fatherland. In this invention God has placed the means at my disposal to lead Germany triumphantly out of her present difficulties and to make, once and for all, good the words of our poet, ' Deuischland, Deiitschland Uher alles ! ' Yes, gentlemen, Germany over everything in, the world, the first power on earth, both in peace and war ; that is the place which I have been ordered by God to conquer for her, and which I will conquer for her, with the help of the Almighty. *' This is my irrevocable decision. At pre- sent we are, thanks to our airships, invincible, and can carry at will war into the enemy's own country. It goes without saying that if we want to maintain our superiority and to use it to the best advantage, we cannot postpone the necessary action much longer. In a few 3^ears our good friend, the enemy, may have a fleet of airships equal — if not superior — to our own, and where should I be then ? Great Britain has thrown down the gauntlet by declaring that she will build to each German, two English Dreadnoughts, and 28 : GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND I "will, take up the challenge. Now is our time. The attack has always been the best defence, and he who strikes the first blow generally comes triumphant out of the fray. To find an outlet for the discontent of the nation; to nip the growing republican senti- ment in the bud; to fill our treasury; to reduce the burden of taxation; to gain new colonies and markets for our industries across the seas ; to accomplish all this and still more, we simply have to invade England. '' You do not look at all surprised, gentle- men, and I see from the joy on your faces that my words have found an echo in your hearts. At last this idea, which is so popular with the greater part of my people, and to the propagation of which I am so much indebted to the untiring efforts of my pro- fessors, teachers, and other loyal patriots, is to become a fact — a fact certainly not antici- pated by the English panic-mongers when first creating the scare of a German invasion. Our plans have been most carefully laid and prepared by our General Staff. *' Another von Moltke will, true to his great name, demonstrate to the world at large that we have not been resting on our laurels of 1870 and 1871, and that, as the first condition of peace, we have been preparing all the time for war. The glorious deeds of our victorious armies will, I fear me not, be again repeated if not surpassed on the battlefields of Great Britain and France, assuring in their ultimate GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 29 consequences to Germany the place due to her at the head of nations. I need not go into details at the present moment. Sufhce it to say that preparations have been made to convey, at a word, a German army of invasion of a strength able to cope with any and all troops that Great Britain can muster against us. For the safe transport of the army of invasion we shall, to a considerable degree, rely on the fleets of fast steamers belonging to the Hamburg-Amerika Line and the North-German Lloyd, two patriotic com- panies, whose officials, employees, and agents have — throughout the world — proven their zeal and devotion to the cause of the Empire, and whose tact and discretion have already helped my government in many an embarrass- ing position. Herr Ballin, Director-General of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, whom I received but a few days since on board my yacht ' Hohenzollern ' at Swinemiinde, is trxily a great man and verily deserves something better than to be nicknamed ' the Napoleon of German Shipping * — as his enthusiastic compatriots call him. His activity, his energy, and his brains accomplish the most difficult things, and when the day of invasion arrives, he will reveal his plans. '* Of course it is too early yet to fix the exact date when the blow shall be struck. But I will say this, that we shall strike as soon as I have a sufficiently large fleet of Zeppelins at my disposal. I have given orders 30 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND for the hurried construction of more airships of the improved Zeppelin type, and when these are ready we shall destroy England's North Sea, Channel, and Atlantic fleets, after which nothing on earth can prevent the landing of our army on British soil, and its triumphant march to London. Do you remember, my Generals, what our never-to-be-forgotten Field-Marshal Gebhard Lebrecht von Bliicher exclaimed, when look- ing from the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral upon the vast metropolis at his feet. It was short, and to the point. ' What a splendid city to sack ! ' *' You will desire to know how the outbreak of hostilities will be brought about. I can assure you on this point. Certainly we shall not have to go far to find a just cause for war. My army of spies scattered over Great Britain and France, as it is over North and South America, as w^ell as all the other parts of the world, where German interests may come to a clash with a foreign power, will take good care of that. / have issued already some time since secret orders that will, at the proper moment, accomplish what we desire. There is even now, as you are all aware, a state of private w^ar existing between our country on the one side, and Great Britain and France on the other, which will assume an official character as soon as I give the word. It will become the starting point of a new era in the history of the world, known GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 31 to all generations as the Pan-German era. I once pledged my word that every German outside of the Fatherland, in whatever part of the globe he might live, had a just claim to my Imperial protection. At this solemn hour I repeat this pledge before you, with the addition, however, that I shall not rest and be satisfied until all the countries and territories that once were German, or where greater numbers of my former subjects now Hve, have become a part of the great Mother- country, acknowledging me as their supreme lord in war and peace. '' Even now I rule supreme in the United States, where almost one half of the popula- tion is either of German birth, or of German descent, and where three milUon German voters do my bidding at the Presidential elections. No American administration could remain in power against the will of the German voters, who through that admirable organisation, the German- American National League of the United States of America, control the destinies of the vast Republic beyond the sea. If man ever was worthy of a high decoration at my hands it was Herr Dr. Hexamer, the president of the League, who may justly be termed to be, by my grace, the acting ruler of all the Germans in the United States. *' Who said that Germany did ever acknow- ledge the Monroe doctrine ? The answer to this question was given by the roar of German 32 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND guns at the bombardment of the Venezuelan fort, San Carlos, by our ships. The day is not far distant when my Germans in the Southern States of Brazil will cut the bonds now tying them to the RepubUc, and renew their allegiance to their former master. In the Argentine, as well as in the other South American republics, a German-Bund move- ment is spreading, as is the case in South Africa, where, thanks to the neighbourhood of our colonies, events are shaping themselves in accordance with the ultimate aims of my Imperial policy. Through my ally, the Emperor-King of Austria-Hungary, I have secured a strong foothold for Germany in the Near East, and, mark my word ! — when the Turkish ' pilaf '-pie will be partitioned, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine — in short, the overland route to India — will become our property, and the German flag will wave over the holy shrines of Jerusalem. '' But to obtain this we must first crush England and France. The war will be short, sharp and decisive. After the destruction of the English fleets through our Zeppelins, we shall meet with no serious resistance on the British Isles, and can, therefore, march with nearly our whole strength into France. Shall we respect the neutrality of Holland ? Under the glorious Emperor, Charles V., both Hol- land and Belgium formed part of the German Empire, and this they are this time to become afain. We shall have two or three battles in GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 33 France, when the French Government, recog- nising the impossibiUty of prevailing with their disorganised, mutinous regiments against my German ' beasts,' will accede to my terms of peace. After that, the map of Europe will look somewhat different from what it does now. While our operations are going on in England and France, Russia will be held in check by Austria-Hungary. '' The Empire of the Tsar is still suffering from the effects of its unfortunate war with Japan, and is, therefore, not likely to burn its fingers again, the more so as it is conscious of the fact that any warhke measures against Germany would at once lead to a new out- break of the revolutionary movement — the end of which no man could possibly foresee. Thus, you will agree with me, we have no real cause to fear Russia. After the war, it will be time to set things right in America, and to teach my friends over there that I have not forgotten the object-lesson which Admiral Dewey saw fit to give me some years since, when we had the Httle altercation with Castro. '* If God will help us, as I ^am convinced He will, I trust that at the end of the coming year the Imperial treasury will he filled to overflowing with the gold of the British and French war indemnities, that the discontent of our people will have ceased, that, thanks to our new colonies in all parts of the world, industry and trade will be flourishing as they B 34 GERMAN SPIEvS IN ENGLAND never were before, and that the republican movement among my subjects, so abhorrent to my mind, will have vanished. '* Then — but not before — the moment will have come to talk of disarmament and arbi- tration. With Great Britain and France in the dust, with Russia and the United States at my mercy, I shall set a new course to the destinies of the world — a course that will ensure to Germany for all time to come the leading part among the nations of the globe. That accompUshed, I shall unite all the people of the white race in a powerful alliance for the purpose of coping, under German guid- ance, with the yellow peril which is becoming more formidable with every year. Then — as now — it must be * Germans to the front ! ' " The notes before me describe, in vivid language, the effect which this speech of the Emperor had upon his devoted hearers. The old white-headed General von K even knelt before his Majesty to kiss the hand which was gracefully extended to him. '* It is truly the voice of God that has spoken out of your Majesty," he cried in deep emotion. '' God has chosen your Im- perial Majesty as His worthy instrument to destroy this nightmare of British supremacy at sea, from which Germany has suffered all these many ^'^ears — and God's will be done ! " The blasphemy of it all ! In the subsequent Council, which lasted nearly five hours through GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 35 the night, the Kaiser arrived with his advisers at a perfect understanding regarding the best ways and means to be adopted for a successful carrying out of his Majesty's secret campaign for war. And Prince Henry of Prussia soon after- wards organised a British motor-tour in Germany and throughout England. And he became the idol of the Royal Automobile Club! CHAPTER III HOW THE PUBUC WKRE BAMBOOZI^KD Though the foregoing has been known to the British Cabinet for over six years, and through it, no doubt, to the various Chan- celleries of Europe, not a word was allowed to leak out to the world until December 2nd, 1914 — after we had been at war four months. The determination of the War Lord of Germany — whose preparations against Great Britain had been so slyly and so cunningly made — was at last revealed by the publication of the French Yellow Book, which disclosed that in a dispatch dated November 22nd, 1913, M. Jules Cambon, the French Ambassa- dor in Berhn, reported a conversation between the Emperor and the King of the Belgians in the presence of General von Moltke, the chief of the General Staff. King Albert had till then beheved, as most people in Great Britain had believed, that the Empeicr was a friend of peace. But at this interview^ King' Albert, according to an excellent summary of the dispatches pub- Hshed in the Star, found the Emperor com- pletely changed. He revealed himself as the [GERMAN SPIESilN ENGIvAND 37 champion of the war party which he had hither- to held in check. King Albert learned that the Emperor had '' come to think that war with France was inevitable, and that things must come to that sooner or later/' General von Moltke spoke to King Albert '* exactly as his Sovereign/' He, too, declared that *' war was necessary and inevitable/' He said to King Albert : '' This time we must settle the business once and for all, and your Majesty can have no idea of the irresistible enthusiasm which on that day will sweep over the whole German people." King Albert vainly protested that it was a travesty of the intentions of the French Government to interpret them in this fashion. He found the Emperor '' over- wrought and irritable." M. Cambon suggested that the change in the Emperor's attitude was due to jealousy of the popularity of the Crown Prince, '* who flatters the passions of the Pan-Germans." He also suggested that the motive of the conversation was to induce King Albert to oppose no resistance in the event of war. The French Ambassador warned his Govern- ment that the Emperor was famiharising himself with an order of ideas once repugnant to him. In other words, as long ago as 1913 the Kaiser was no longer working for the peace of Europe, but was already in the hands of the Prussian gang of miUtarists, who were working for war. 38 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND The French Yellow Book proves up to the hilt the guilt of Germany, in shattering the last hopes of peace at the end of July, 1914. Russia had proposed a formula for a direct agreement with Austria, but on July 30th Herr von Jagow, without consulting Austria, declared that this proposal was not accept- able. When Germany discovered that Austria was wavering and becoming more conciliatory, she threw off the mask, and suddenly hurled her ultimatum at Russia. M. Cambon re- minded Herr von Jagow of his declaration that Germany would not mobilise if Russia only mobilised on the GaHcian frontier. What was the German Minister's reply ? It was a subterfuge. He said : ''It was not a definite undertaking.*' The German Government, in its White Paper, suppressed its despatches during the crucial period to Vienna. It did not publish them because, we now know, it did not dare to reveal the truth. Germany, as I have shown, had for a long time planned the attack on France through Belgium. So long ago, indeed, as May 6th, 1913, von Moltke said : '' We must begin war without waiting, in order to brutally crush all resistance." The evidence of the Yellow Book proves that the Emperor and his entourage had irrevocably resolved to frustrate all efforts of the AlHes to preserve the peace of Europe. It confirms the Kaiser's secret intentions revealed in the previous chapter, and it establishes — fully and finally — GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 39 the guilt of the Kaiser and of the German Government. Those British newspapers which were most active and resolute in keeping the country unprepared for the war that has come upon us, and which, if they had had their way, would have left us to-day almost naked to our enemies, are now suddenly rubbing their eyes, and discovering that Germany had premedi- tated war for quite a long time. And this is up-to-date journalism ! The public, alas ! reposed confidence in such journals. Happily, they do not now. What the country will never forget, if it consents to forgive, is the perversity with which they so long refused to look facts in the face. It is surely a damning coincidence that when the Kaiser and von Moltke were telUng King Albert that war was inevitable, was the very time chosen by the National Liberal Federation to demand the reduction of our Navy Estimates, and to threaten the Govern- ment with a dangerous division in the party unless the demand were complied with ! Reduction in armaments, forsooth ! The Government knew the facts, and did indeed resist the demand ; but for weeks there was a crisis in the Cabinet, and even in January, 1914, as the Glohe pointed out, a Minister took the occasion to declare that a unique opportunity had arrived for revising the scale of our expenditure on Armaments ! While Mr. McKenna was, as late as last 40 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGlvAND November, endeavouring in an outrageous manner to gag the Globe, and to prevent that newspaper from telling the pubHc the truth of the spy-peril, lyord Haldane — the scales from whose eyes regarding his friend the Kaiser appear now to have fallen — made a speech on November 25th, 1914, in the House of Lords in which he, at last, admitted the existence of spies. The following are extracts from this speech : — " With the extraordinary intelligence system which Germany organised in this coimtry long before, the war, no doubt they had certain advantages which they ought not to have even of this kind. ... If he were to harbour a suspicion it would be that the most formidable people were not aliens, but probably people of British nationaUty who had been suborned. ... He wishes he were sure that when really valuable and dangerous pieces of information were given they were not given by people of our own nationahty, but some of the information which had been given, could only have been given by people who had access to it because they were British. His beHef was that we had had very httle of this kind of thing, but that we had some, and that it was formidable he could not doubt. In seeking these sources of communication with the enemy it was desirable to go about the search in a scientific way, and to cast suspicion where it was most Hkely to be founded." Such a contribution to the spy question was really very characteristic. It, however, came ill from one whose legal confrere was, at that moment, being referred to in the House of Commons as having a German GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 4i chauffeur who had been naturalised after the war broke out, and had gone for a holiday into Switzerland ! Switzerland is a country not in the Antarctic Ocean, but right on the border of the land of the Huns in Europe, and the Lord Chief Justice, according to Mr. Asquith at the Guildhall, is in close association with Cabinet Ministers in these days of crises. Perhaps, as a correspondent pointed out, it never struck our Lord Chancellor that the Lord Chief Justice's '' now-British'' chauffeur might — though I hope not — have gone through Switzerland into Germany, and might, if so disposed, quite innocently have related there information to which he had access, not only because he was British, but because he was in the service of a highly- placed person. Or, perhaps, he did realise it, and his reference to information given by persons of British nationality was a veiled protest against the action of some of his colleagues — against that other who also has a '* now-British " chauffeur, or to a third, whose German governess, married to a German officer, left her position early in November, but has left her German maid behind her. Perhaps he did not know these things, or he would also have known that other people may have access to information, not because they are British, but because they are in the employ of British Cabinet Ministers. Hitherto, the security of our beloved Empire had been disregarded by part}- 42 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND politicians, and their attendant sycophants, in their frantic efforts to " get-on " socially, and to pile up dividends. What did '' The City " care in the past for the nation's peril, so long as money was being made ? In the many chats I had with the late Lord Roberts we deplored the apathy with which Great Britain regarded what was a serious and most perilous situation. But, after all, were the British public really to blame ? They are discerning and intelli- gent, and above all, patriotic. Had they been told the hideous truth, they would have risen in their masses, and men would have willingly come forward to serve and defend their country from the dastardly intentions of our hypocritical '* friends " across the North Sea, and their crafty Emperor of the volte-face. It is not the fault of the British public themselves. The blame rests as an indelible blot upon certain members of the British Government, who now stand in the pillor>^ exposed, naked and ashamed. The apologetic speeches of certain members of the Cabinet, and the subdued and altered tone of certain influential organs of the Press, are, to the thinker, all-sufficient proof. In the insidious form of fiction — not daring to write fact after my bitter experiences and the seal of silence set upon my Hps — I en- deavoured, in my novel '* Spies of the Kaiser '' and other books, time after time, to warn the public of the true state of affairs which GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 43 was being^so carefully and so foolishly hidden. I knew the truth, but, in face of public opinion, I dared not write it in other fashion. Naturally, if the Government jeered at me, the public would do likewise. Yet I confess that very often I was filled with the deepest regret, and on the Continent I discussed with foreign statesmen, and with the Kings of Italy, Servia, Roumania and Montenegro in private audiences I was granted by them, what I dared not discuss in London. Our national existence was certainly at stake. Lord Roberts knew it. He — with members of the Cabinet — had read the Kaiser's fateful words which I have here printed in the foregoing pages, and it was this knowledge which prompted him to so strenuously urge the peril of our unpreparedness until the out- break of war. The hypocrisy of the Kaiser is sufficiently revealed by the fact that two months after his declaration at the Secret Council at Pots- dam he made a public speech at Strasburg on August 30th in which he assured the world that the peace of Europe was not in danger. In the same month, however, that the German Emperor disclosed his secret inten- tions towards Great Britain, some important miUtary manoeuvres took place in Essex and were watched most closely by the German authorities. The spy-peril had then com- menced. It would seem that the Kaiser took the keenest interest in the matter. 44 GERMAN SPIES IN .ENGI^ANDl^ " Despite the fact that there was an officially accredited German military attache, a number of German agents were also present, and among the number was Count Eulenburg, a Secretary of the German Embassy in I^ondon. A military correspondent of the Daily Mail wrote that the Count's taking of notes and making of sketches had excited a good deal of adverse criticism among the British officers who were familiar with the^fact. The reports of all these secret agents were apparently to be laid before the^ Kaiser, who was well aware of the significance of the operations in Essex to both the German Army and Navy. The ordy organ of the Press which recog- nised the spy-peril in its earliest stages was the Daily Mail, which never ceased to point out the imminent and serious danger, and to warn the public that Germany meant us harm. Because of this open poUcy, it was from time to time denounced by the deluded public — deluded because of official lies — for what was termed its '' scaremongerings." But recent events have surely shown the world that that journal spoke the open truth, while all others, and more especially a certain dear old deUghtful lyondon daily paper, so glibly told us that '' there will be no war with Germany," while even three days before the outbreak of war this same journal actually made a plea for '^ German Culture.'' Culture indeed ! ^". Have not the modern Huns now revealed themselves ? What* must GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 45 readers of that paper now think ? It has truly been said that the influence of the half-naked barbarians who swept over the Thuringian forests soon after the birth of Christianity has never been totally eradicated. There is, au fond, an inherent brutaUty in the German character which the saving grace of the art of music has never destroyed, the brutality which caused the destruction of Louvain, of Rheims, of Ypres, of Termonde, of MaUnes, the wreck of cathedrals and churches, and the wholesale savage butchery of innocent men, women, and even tiny children. And this is the gallant and ''cultured'* nation which has been so admired and eulogised by certain well-known papers : the nation which has so cleverly spread its spies through every phase of our national life, and made such elaborate plans for her conquest that, in her arrogance, she has now risen to defy civilisa- tion. Here is one of many equally ridiculous extracts from that same journal which pleaded for ''German culture." It was published after a Zeppelin had flown610miles, on January 1st, 1909: - " . . . as far as national danger goes, the thing is not yet within sight. ' Dirigibles ' may, in the future, be useful for scouting and collecting intelli- gence when war has once begun, . . . but talk about invasion by airship, or bombardment from the sky, need not, for a long time, be considered by ourselves or any other nation." 46 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Again, a few days later, this same pro- German journal wrote : — " It is maintained by some of our contemporaries that Germany is struggling to regain her position of predominance in Europe, such as she held more than thirty years ago. That is not our reading of the situation/' I will not quote more. There are dozens of such expressions of opinions in the files of that unreliable organ of "public opinion." Where should we have been to-day, I ask, had we suffered ourselves to be led by the nose by this '' patriotic " organ of the Press, which, with its sinister commercialism on the declaration of war, urged upon us to keep out of the fighting, and to capture the trade of our friends the Belgians, French, and Russians ? This self -proclaimed organ of " humani- tarianism " actually urged us to stand aside and make capital out of the agonies of those countries at war. I will quote the following from the article in its actual words on August the 4th — the day upon which war was declared : — " If we remained neutral we should be, from the commercial point of view, in precisely the same position as the United States. We should be able to trade with all the belligerents (so far as the war allows of trade with them) ; we should be able to capture the bulk of their trade in neutral markets ; we should keep our expenditure down ; we should keep out of debt ; we should have healthy finances." And this same organ of humanitarianism GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 47 has assured us, for years, that no spies of Germany existed in England, and that war was utterly out of the question. And the British public have paid their half-pennies for such bamboozle ! One sighs to think of it ! Times without number — even to-day as I write — this journal has sought to ridicule those who attempt to tell the nation the truth concerning the underground peril existing in every part of our islands. Its motive for so doing may be left to the inquisitive. Probably few men have travelled so con- stantly up and down Europe as I have done, in search of material for my books. In the course of my wanderings, and perhaps a somewhat erratic life on the Continent, I have — ever since I recognised the spy-peril — made it my practice to seek out the spies of Germany, and I know a good many of them. An incident which may interest the reader occurred on October 29th, 1914 : I was on the platform of Waterloo Station buying a paper, and chatting with the book- stall clerk, when I noticed a group of men. mostly in shabby overcoats and presenting a woebegone appearance, surrounded by a cordon of police in silver-trimmed helmets — county constabulary from the North. An excited crowd had surrounded them, and as I glanced across my attention was attracted by a man slightly better dressed than the others, though his well-cut grey overcoat was somewhat shabby. As his dark, narrow-set 48 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND eyes met mine, he lifted his grey plush hat to me, and smiled across in recognition. For a moment I halted, puzzled. I had not realised that the group of men were prisoners. The fellow's face was famiUar, and the next instant I recognised him. We had met a dozen times in various places in Europe — the last time at Salvini's, in Milan, early in the previous year. He was a well- known agent of the German General Staff, though I had never met him before on British soil. I crossed over to him, arousing the distinct suspicion of the constables and the curiosity of the crowd of onlookers. *' You recollect me, Mr. Le Queux — eh ? " he asked in good EngHsh, with a laugh. '' Of course,'' I said, for I could not help a grain of sympathy with him, for, usually a resident of the best hotels, he was now herded with the scum of his compatriots. '' Well, what's the matter ? " '' Matter ! " he echoed. '' You see ! They've got me at last ! " *' Speak French," I said in that language. '' The police won't understand " ; for the constable near him looked at me very sus- piciously, and I had no desire to be arrested on Waterloo platform. '' Bien I " said my friend, whom I will call by his assumed name, von Sybertz, '' I am arrested. It is the fortune of war ! I am simply detained as an alien, and we are GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 49 going to Frimley, I hear. Do not say any- thing ; do not make it worse for me. That is aU I ask, M'sieur Le Quetix. You know me — too well — eh ? " and he grinned. '' I shall say nothing," was my reply. '' But, in return, tell me what you know. Tell me quickly,'' I urged, for I saw that the constables were preparing to move the prisoners towards the train. '' What is the position ? '' He shrugged his shoulders. ** Bad. My friends are frantic,'' he rephed. '' All their plans have gone wrong. It is, I fear, our downfall. The Kaiser is mad. I have no money. I came to England in the middle of August. I have been to Ports- mouth, to Rosyth, Hull, and lyiverpool ; now I am deserted. I was arrested yesterday near Manchester, though I had registered as German and thought myself safe. I was, as I have always been when in England, a teacher of languages. It covers so much," and he smiled. '' Is not this meeting strange, eh ? We have chatted together — and laughed together, too — in Nice, Florence, Rome — in many places. And now, monsieur, you have the laugh of me — eh ? We must be beaten. Germany begins to know the truth." '' No, not the laugh," I protested. " It is, as you say, the fortune of war that you have been taken." " Pass on, please," commanded the big constable grufily at my elbow. 50 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIyAND *' And you ? — you will S2iy nothing ? Pro- mise me, M'sieur I^e Queux/' von Sybertz urged again in French. *' I have promised," was my reply. '' You are arrested — for me, that is sufficient. I wish you no ill-will, though you are my enemy," I added. *' Ah, yes, you are English ! " exclaimed the spy. '' I knew — I have known always that the EngUsh are gentlemen. Au revoir — and a thousand thanks for your promise." And my friend the spy — a man who, on account of his refined and gentlemanly bear- ing, and the money which had, for years, been at his command, was a particularly dangerous secret-agent of the Kaiser — lifted his shabby grey hat politel}^ and then passed dolefully on, with the big constable at his elbow, to the train which stood waiting to convey him to that barbed-wire enclosure high upon Frith Hill. I watched him pass out of my sight, while the crowd, on their part, watched me in wonder. I knew I had aroused the suspicions of the police by speaking in a foreign tongue. That meeting had been a strangely dramatic one. In those moments there came up before me visions of past meetings. Five years before, I had first known him living in a pretty white villa, with palms in front, on Mont Boron, outside Nice, and taking his lunch daily at the Reserve, at Beaulieu, one of the most expensive luncheon-places in GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND ftl Europe. I had met him in the Russie in Rome, in Doney's in Florence, and in the Pera Palace in Constantinople. He was a gay, merry companion, and half a dozen times I had been to variety theatres with him and to garish night-cafes afterwards. Yet I knew him to be a German international spy, and so intimate had we become that he had scarcely taken the trouble to conceal the fact from me. In those few brief moments there had been enacted before me, at that busy London terminus, the denouement of a great life- drama, and, as the spy disappeared, there arose before me recollections of the gay places of Europe where we had before met — the Rooms at Monte Carlo, the Casino at Trouville, and other places where he had been such a well-known figure, always ex- quisitely dressed, always the acme of correct- ness, and always a great favourite with the fair sex. What would the latter think could they see him now ? In silence and in sorrow I have watched the proceedings of many a German spy in this country — watched while^the public have been lulled to slumber by those who rule. Ah ! it has all been a fearful comedy, which has, alas ! now ended in tragedy — the tragedy of our dead sons, brothers and husbands who lie in unnumbered graves in France and in Belgium. My thoughts revert to individual cases 52 GEMIAN SPIES IN ENGLAND which I have investigated during recent years. At Rosyth, I lived in an obscure hotel in Queensferry under the name of William Kelly, enduring three weeks of wearisome idleness, boating up and down the Firth of Forth, and watching, with interest, the movements of two Germans. They had arrived in Edinburgh from a tourist-ship which had touched at Leith. The first sus- picion of them had been conveyed to me by my friend Mr. D. Thomson, proprietor of the Dundee Courier, and I sped north to investi- gate. In passing I may say that this journal was one of the first — with the Daily Mail — to point out the danger of German spies. My journey was not without result, for I waited, I watched, and I returned to the Intelligence Department with certain impor- tant details which proved to be the beginning of a long campaign. Those two Germans, unsuspicious-looking professors with gold- rimmed spectacles, were making elaborate maps. But these maps were not ordnance maps, but maps of our weaknesses. Our secret agents followed them to Plymouth, to Milford} Haven, to Cromarty, and after- wards on a tour through Ireland. Surely it is betraying no confidence to say that one of our secret agents — a man whose remarkable career I hope to some day record in the guise of fiction — acted as their guide on that curious tour ! GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 53 JL kno\^ I have written times without number of spies in the form of fiction. Many people have asked me, *' Is it true ? " To such I will say that the dramas I have written, short and long, have been penned solely with one single purpose — in order to call public attention to our peril. Many of the stories I have written have been based upon actual fact. Half a Hfe spent in travelling up and down Europe has shown me most conclusively how cleverly Germany has, with the aid of her spies, made elaborate preparations to invade us. So intimate have I been with Germany's secret agents that, during this last Christmas, I had the c^^'spleasure of sending Compliments of the Season to two of them ! I have dined at the Ritz in Paris on more than one occasion with the yellow-toothed old Baroness X , an Austrian, high-bom, smart, and covered with jewellery. With her she has usually ,one and sometimes two pretty ''nieces,'* who speak French, and pose as French. Perhaps they are, but one may be forgiven if one is , suspicious. The Baroness X — — always has on hand a goodly supply of these " nieces." I have met them at Doney's in Florence, at Giro's at Monte Carlo, at Maxim's in Paris, at Shepheard's at Cairo. I have chatted with these young ladies at the Hotel Hungaria in Budapest, at the Royal at Dinard, at the Grand in Rome, and in the aviary at the Metropole^at Brighton. 54 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND But these merry little '' nieces '* are always different ! Baroness X and myself arc in entire agreement. She knows what I know, and she sent me a Christmas card this season and dated from The Hague ! She is certainly the ugliest old lady I have ever met, a figure well known in every European capital. Her speech is like the fiUng of brass. As a linguist, however, she is really wonderful. I beHeve she speaks every European language perfectly, and Arabic too, for she once told me, while we were together on a steamer going down the Mediterranean, that she was born in Smyrna, of Austrian parents. As a spy of Germany she is unique, and I give her her due. She is amazingly clever. To my certain knowledge, she and her nieces, two years ago, while living in Nice beneath the same roof as myself, obtained through a young artillery officer a remarkable set of plans of the defences of the Franco-Italian frontier near the Col di Tenda. Again, I know how she and her attendant couple of " nieces *' were in Ireland ''on a tour " during the troubles of last year. And, fur- ther, I also know how many a military secret of our own War Office has been '' collected " by one or other of those pretty cigarette- smoking flapper '* nieces," with whom I, too, have smoked cigarettes and chatted in French or Italian. How often have I seen one or other of GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 55 these sirens — daughters of a foreign countess as their dupes have believed them to be — driving about London in private cars or in taxis, or supping at restaurants. On a day in last November I found one of these interesting young ladies, dark-haired and chic — Parisienne, of course — enjoying a tete-a-tete luncheon at the Hut at Wisley, on the Ripley road, her cavalier being a man in khaki. I wondered what information she was trying to obtain. Yet what could I do ? How could I act, and interrupt such a perfectly innocent dejeuner a deux ? Yes, to the onlooker who knows, the manoeuvres are all very intensely interesting, and would be most amusing, if they were not all so grimly and terribly tragic. And who is to blame for all this ? Would it be suffered in Germany ? The law of libel, and a dozen other different Acts, are suspended over the head of the unfortunate man who dares to risk ridicule and speak the truth. Therefore, with my own personal experience of the utter in- capability of the Commissioner of Metro- politan Police to deal with' spies, or even to reply to correspondence I have addressed to his hopeless department, and to the still greater discourtesy and amazing chaos exist- ing in his ruling department, the Home Office, I ask myself whether it is of any use whatever to trouble, or even exert oneself further in the matter ? It is for my readers, 56 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND the public themselves, to demand the truth. The pubHc are assuredly not blind to the fact that air raids have been made upon us directed by spies. I can only address these serious words to my circle of readers throughout the Kingdom, and to make my bow, assuring them that while they were being gulled and bamboozled by those whom they have so fooUshly trusted, I have, at personal loss to m^^self — which need not be counted — done my level best to counteract the evil which Germany has spread in our midst. And my only request is that, by my works, constant and earnest as they have been, I may be judged. CHAPTER IV UNDER THE kaiser's THUMB By every subtle and underhand means in her power Germany has prepared for her supreme effort to conquer us. Armies of her spies have swarmed, and still swarm, over Great Britain, though their presence has been, and is even to-day, officially denied. The method adopted at the outset was to scatter secret agents broadcast, and to allot to each the collection of certain information. Men, and women too, in all walks of life have made observations, prepared plans, noted the number of horses locally, the fodder supplies, the direction of telegraph-lines, the quickest method of destroying communica- tions, blowing up tunnels, etc. ; in fact, any information which might be of use in the event of a raid upon our shores. Each group of spies has acted under the direction of a secret-agent, termed a '' fixed post,'' and all have been, in turn, visited at periods varying from one month to six weeks by a person not likely to be suspected — usually in the guise of commercial-traveller, 58 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND debt-collector, or insurance-agent, who col- lected the reports and made payments — the usual stipend being ten pounds per month. Some spies in the higher walks of Hfe were, of course, paid well, as much as one thousand pounds a year being given in one case — that of a lady who, until recently, lived in Ken- sington — and in another to a German who, until a few weeks ago, was highly popular in the diplomatic circle. The chief bureau, to which all reports from England were sent, was an innocent-looking office in the Montague de la Cour, in Brussels — hence Ostend was so often made a rendezvous between spies and traitors. It is certainly as well that the authorities have already taken precautions to guard our reservoirs. As far back as five years ago, a large number of the principal water supplies in England were reconnoitred by a band of itinerant musicians, who, though they played mournful airs in the streets, were really a group of very wide-awake German officers. They devoted three months to the metropolis — where they succeeded in making a complete plan of the water-mains supplying East London — and then afterwards visited Man- chester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, and Newcastle. At the latter place they were detected, and being warned by the authorities, fled. They were '* warned " be- cause at that time there was no Act to deal with them GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 59 Just at this juncture a most fortunate incident occurred, though probably it will be met with an official denial. A young German who had been making observations around Rosyth and beneath the Forth Bridge, was detected, and fled. The police sought him out and he was compelled to again fly with- out paying his rent, leaving his suit-case behind. After a month the landlady took this bag to the police, who, on opening it, found a quantity of documents, which were sealed up and sent to I^ondon. They were soon found to be most instructive, for not only was there a list of names of persons hitherto unsuspected of espionage, but also a little book containing the secret code used by the spies ! Needless to say, this has been of the greatest use to those engaged in the work of contra-espionage. Of the good work done by the latter, the public, of course, know nothing, but it may be stated that many a confidential report destined for Berlin was intercepted before it reached the spy's post-office, the shop of the barber Ernst, in London — to which I will later on refer — and many a judicious hint has been given which has caused the suspect to pack his, or her, belongings and return by the Hook of Holland route. East Anglia has, of course, been the happy hunting ground of spies, and the counties of Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have, long ago, been very thoroughly surveyed, and 60 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND every preparation made for a raid. It was found — as far back as four years ago- — that next door, or in the vicinity of most village post-offices near the coast-line of those coun- ties, a foreigner had taken up his residence, that German hairdressers and jewellers were everywhere setting up shops where custom did not warrant it ; that Germans took sea- side furnished houses or went as paying guests in the country, even in winter ; while, of course, the number of German waiters — usually passing as Austrians — had increased greatly. When the Kaiser rented HighclifEe Castle, in Hampshire, under the pretext that he was in, he. brought with him no fewer than thirty secretaries. Why ? A foreigner who comes here to recuperate does not want thirty secretaries — even though he may be an Emperor ! Napoleon never wanted such a crowd of scribblers about him. But the truth was that these thirty secre- taries were engaged with their Imperial master-spy in reorganising and perfecting the various sections of his amazing spy-system in this country — a system that the British Government were with culpable untruthful- ness declaring only existed in the imagination of a novelist — myself. I wrote pointing out this, but only execrations again fell upon my unfortunate head. I was laughed at as a '* sensationalist,'' scorned by the Party of Criminal Apathy, and a dead set was made GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 61 at me by a certain section of the Press to jeer at, and crush myself and all my works into oblivion. lyCt us go a step further. Mr. Anthony Nugent, who writes with considerable author- ity in the Globe, shall here speak. " The oddest situation in England," he says, " was just before the outbreak of the war. We had then, not only an Ambassador's cloak in Ivondon covering Prince lyichnowsky, but a real Ambassador in Hefr J^iihlmann, Companion of the Victorian Order. [I wonder if he still wears the honourable insignia ?] The Ambassador was an honest man, and beHeved that he had a free hand in trying to improve our relations with Germany. He was only here to give us * tafEy ' — as the Yankees say. All his speeches at Oxford and at City ban- quets were sincere enough from his point of view, but he knew nothing of what was going on in the Chancelleries at Berhn, or downstairs in the Embassy residence at Carlton House Terrace. " Those who descend the Duke of York's steps in Pall Mall, will see a common, unpretentious door on the right hand side, part of the way down. That was one of the entrances to the Embassy, and quite a different class of people used it from those gay folk who came boldly in motor-cars to the front door, which sported the decoration of the Imperial eagle. It was by the lower door there passed the principals in the espionage system, and it was in the lower rooms that Herr Kiihlmann interviewed his * friends.' He was a tall, good- looking man, with a specious suggestion of being straightforward and open deahng, but probably there never was so tortuous-minded a person at the Embassy. He was there for many years, and knew all who were worth knowing. He it was 62 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND who furnished the reports on which the Emperer and the Crown Prince acted. " Prince Lichnowsky, for instance, foresaw that in the event of war, the Unionists in Ulster would support the Government. Herr Kiihlmann had sent over spies who masqueraded as journaUsts, and they came back from Belfast beHeving that civil war was inevitable. Herr Kiihlmann accepted their view, and thus deceived the Kaiser and the German Chancellor. The same gentleman was much interested in the Indian movement, and I remember discussing with him the causes that led to the murder of a great Anglo-Indian official at the Imperial Institute. He was convinced that India was ripe for revolt. Again he deceived the Emperor on the subject. The German spy system was wide, and it was thorough, but its chief lacked imagination, and took niggHng and petty views. In a word it is efficient in signalHng, prying into arrangements, spreading false news, and securing minor successes, and that it can still do here, but had it realised how the whole world would be opposed to it, there would have been no war." The gross licence extended to our alien enemies in peace-time has, surely, been little short of criminal. Fancy there having been a '* German Officers' Club " in L^ondon, close to Piccadilly Circus ! Could anyone imagine an '' English Officers' Club " in Berhn — or in any other Continental capital, for the matter of that ? In the first place, there would not have been a sufficient number of EngUsh officers to run a club, even if it had been allowed by the German authorities, which would have been most unhkely. But, on the other hand, there were enough German GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 63 officers in London, not only to support a club, but to give a large and expensive ball not very long ago at a well-known West End hotel ! Germany has a large army, and a consider- able navy, but is leave- lavished with such prodigality on her officers as to make it worth their while to have a special club of their own in the metropolis ? One can hardly imagine this to be the case. Why, then, were there so many German officers in London ? We may be sure that they were not here for the benefit of our country. The German Officers' Club was no secret society, and was, therefore, winked at by the sleepy British authorities. The War Office may have argued that it enabled them to keep an eye on them, and there ma^^ be something in that plea. But what possible justification could have been found for allowing a considerable number of German officers to assemble near South- borough — ^between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells — not so very long ago, and to carr>' out what practically amounted to a *' Staff Ride " in the '' Garden of England " over a very important strategic position ? Fancy such a piece of espionage being attempted in Germany ! It is even known that the German Ambassador dined with the officers in ques- tion. Had the German Officers' Club been under observation, could this have possibly been done without the cognisance of the authorities ? 64 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND *The authorities knew of all that was in progress, but calmly looked on, and, as usual, did nothing. The downfall of England was being plotted, but what did they care, so long as all went smoothly and they enjoyed their own social standing and their own emoluments. There is an air of refreshing candour and simphcity in the official statement that no alien enemy is permitted to reside in a prohibited area without a special licence granted, after his case has been carefully examined, by the police. Now, we know that proprietors and mana- gers of hotels and licensed premises, as well as prominent residents, are usually on good terms with the police. It would surely be to their interest to cultivate good relations with them. And as the Lord Chancellor has assured us that the Germans are people of " greater astuteness,'* it is only reasonable to suppose they would be particularly careful to entrust their spying work in this country to only the smartest and most crafty emis- saries. One can imagine that a really clever German spy '' bent on business " has had but very little difficulty in hoodwinking the honest man in blue, and obtaining from him the " permit '' required for his signalling, or other work on the coast. The experiences of the last four months at lyiege, Antwerp, Mons, Rheims, Ypres, and i GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 65 other places, has taught us that it is not always the alien who is the spy. In each of those towns men who had lived for years as highly respectable and law-abiding citizens, and whom everyone believed to be French or Belgian, suddenly revealed themselves as secret agents of the invaders, acting as their guides, and committing all sorts of outrages. In our own country it is the same. There are to-day many who have lived among us for years, and are highly respected, only waiting for the signal to be given to commence cheir operations. It is true that bombs from German air machines have been dropped on English ground — one fell in a garden at Dover and damaged a cabbage, or maybe two — also that Zeppelins flew over Norfolk and dropped bombs, but so far no air fleet from Germany has given the signal for German spies to start their arranged work of destruction in our midst, for the enemy has declared with its usual cynical frankness that their army of spies will only start their dastardly work when all is ready for the raid and the fleet of Zeppelins sail over London and give the signal. CHAPTER V HOW SPIES WORK The German spy system, as establi.ilied in England, may be classified under vari: us heads — military, naval, diplomatic, and also the agents provocateurs, those hirelings of Germany who have, of late, been so diligent in stirring up sedition in Ireland, and who, since the war began, have endeavoured, though not successfully, to engineer a strike of seamen at Liverpool and a coal strike. First, every German resident in this country may be classed as a spy, for he is, at all times, ready to assist in the work of the official secret-agents of the Fatherland. The mihtary spy is usually a man who has received thorough instruction in sketching, photography, and in the drafting of reports, and on arrival here, has probably set up in business in a small garrison town. The trade of jeweller and watchmaker is one of the most favoured disguises, for the spy can rent a small shop, and though he cannot repair watches himself, he can engage an unsuspect- ing assistant to do so. Therefore, to all intents and purposes, his business is a legitimate one. If he is a devout church or GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 67 chapel-goer, and subscribes modestly to the local charities, he will soon become known, and will quickly number among his friends some military men from whom he can obtain information regarding movements of troops, and a-thousand-and-one military details, all of which he notes carefully in his reports, the latter being collected by a '' traveller in jewellery,*' who visits him at regular intervals, and who makes payment in exchange. Every report going out of Great Britain is carefully tabulated and indexed by a marvellous system in Berlin. These, in turn, are compared, analysed and checked by experts, so that, at last, the information received is passed as accurate, and is then indexed for reference. Now the military spy also keeps his eyes and ears open regarding the officers of the garrison. If an officer is in financial difficul- ties, the fact is sent forward, and some money-lender in lyondon will most certainly come to his assistance and thus ingratiate himself as his *' friend." Again, there are wives of officers who are sometimes a little indiscreet, and in more than one known case blackmail has been levied upon the unfortu- nate woman, and then, suddenly, an easy way out of it all has been craftily revealed to her by a blackguard in German pay. From the widespread secret-service of Ger- many, nothing is sacred. The German General Staff laughs at our apathy, and boasts that it knows all about us, the military and civil 68 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND population alike. In the archives of its Intelligence Department there are thousands upon thousands of detailed reports — furnished constantly throughout the past ten years — regarding the lives and means of prominent persons in England, with descriptions of their homes wherein, one day, the enemy hope to billet their troops. These unscrupulous men who act as '' fixed- posts *' — and it is no exaggeration to say that there are still hundreds in England alone, notwithstanding all official assurances to the contrary — have all gone through an elaborate system of training in signalling, in reducing messages to code, and in decoding them, in map-making, in the use of carrier-pigeons, and, in some cases, in the use of secret wireless. The naval spy works in a somewhat similar manner to his military colleague. At every naval port in Great Britain it is quite safe to assume that there are spies actively carry- ing on their work, though it is quite true that one or two, who have long been under suspicion, have now found it wise to disappear into oblivion. A favourite guise of the spy in a naval port is, it seems, to pose as a hairdresser, for in pursuance of that humble and most honourable calling, the secret agent has many opportunities to chat with his customers, and thus learn a good deal of what is in progress in both port and dock- yard : what ships are putting to sea, and the strength and dispositions of various divisions GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 69> of our navy. Cases in recent years of spies at Portsmouth, Chatham, and Plymouth have revealed how active Germany has been in this direction. In one case, at Plymouth, a salary of £500 a year was offered to a Mr. Duff for information regarding naval matters, on the pretext that this information was required by a Naval and Military journal in Germany. Mr. Duff, however, communi- cated with the authorities, who promptly arrested the spy — a man named Schulz, who lived on a yacht on the river Yealm. He was tried at the Devon Assizes and, certain documents being found upon him, he was sentenced to a year and nine months' imprison- ment. What, we wonder, would have been his fate if he had been British, and had been arrested in Germany ? Of diplomatic espionage little need be said in these pages. Every nation has its secret service in diplomacy, a service rendered necessary perhaps by the diplomatic juggling of unscrupulous representatives of various nations. Many diplomatic spies are women moving in the best society, and such persons aboimd in every capital in the world. The means of communication between the spy and his employers are several. Innocent sketches may be made of woodland scenery, with a picturesque windmill and cottage in the foreground, and woods in the distance. Yet this, when decoded in Berlin — the old windmill representing a lighthouse, the trees 70 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND a distant town, and so forth — will be found to be an elaborate plan of a harbour showing the disposition of the mines in its channel ! Again, there are codes in dozens of different forms of letters or figures with various com- binations, key-numbers, cross-readings, etc. There is the three-figure code, the five-figure code, and so on, all of which, though difiicult, can, if sufficient time be spent upon them, be eventually deciphered by those accustomed to dealing with such problems. Far more difficult to decipher, however, are communications written as perfectly innocent ordinary correspondence upon trade or other matters, yet, by certain expressions, and by mentioning certain names, objects, or prices, they can be rightly read only by the person with whom those meanings have been prearranged. From the daring movements of the German Fleet in the North Sea it would appear that, through spies, the enemy are well aware of the limit and position of our mine-fields, while the position of every buoy is certainl}^ known. When the first attack was made upon Yarmouth, the enemy took his range from certain buoys, and the reason the shells fell short was that only the day before those buoys had been moved a mile further out to sea. Again, for many 3^ears — indeed, until I called pubHc attention to the matter — foreign pilots were allowed to ply their profession in the Humber, and by that means we may rest assured that Germany made many sur- veys of our East Coast. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 71 The spies of Germany are to be found everywhere, yet the Home Office and the poHce have shown themselves quite incapable of dealing effectively with them. The War Office, under the excellent administration of Lord Kitchener, has surely been busy enough with military matters, and has had no time to deal with the enemy in our midst. Neither has the Admiralty. Therefore the blame must rest upon the Home Office, who, instead of dealing with the question with a firm and drastic hand, actually issued a communique declaring that the spy peril no longer existed ! As an illustration of Germany's subtle preparations in the countries she intends to conquer, and as a warning to us here in Great Britain, surely nothing can be more illuminating than the following, written by a special correspondent of the Times with the French Army near Rheims. That journal — with the Daily Mail — has always been keenly alive to the alien peril in England, and its correspondent wrote : — " Nowhere else in France have the Germans so thoroughly prepared their invasion as they did in Champagne, which they hoped to make theirs. In the opinion of the inhabitants of Epernay, the saving of the town from violent pillage is only due to the desire of the Germans not to ravage a country which they regarded as being already German soil. The wanton bombardment of Rheims is accepted almost with delight, as being a clear indication that the enemy has been awakened by the battle of the Marne from those pleasant dreams of conquest which inflamed the whole German nation with enthusiasm at the outset of the war. 72 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND *' The spy system thought out in time of peace in preparation for what is happening to-day has served Germany well, and every day the accuracy of German gunfire pays a tribute to the zeal and efficiency with which these loathsome individuals accomplish a task for which they have sold their honour as Frenchmen. Hardly a week passes without some fresh discovery being made. At the headquarters of the different army corps along this section of the front, hardly a day passes without the arrest and examination of suspect peasants or strangers from other provinces. Elaborate under- ground telephone instdlations have been discovered and destroyed. " One day a gendarme who wished to water his horse approached a well in the garden of an aban- doned house. At the bottom of the well there was not truth but treason. Comfortably installed in this disused shaft a German spy was engaged in making his report by telephone to the German InteUigence Department. " The mentahty of the spy can never be explained, for how can one account for the mixture of the fine quality of bravery and the despicable greed of money which will keep a man in a city hke Rheims, exposed every hour of the day and night to death from the spHnter of a shell fired at the town by his own paymasters ? I do not suggest for a moment that of the 20,000 people who still inhabit the town of Rheims and its cellars there is any large proportion of traitorous spies, but to the French InteUigence Department there is no question whatsoever that there is still a very efficient spying organisation at work in the city." Among us here in Great Britain, I repeat, are men — hundreds of them — who are daily, nay hourly, plotting our downfall, and are awaiting the signal to act as the German General StaS has arranged that they shall GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 73 act. To attempt to disguise the fact longer is useless. We have Hved in the fool's paradise which the Government prepared for us long enough. We were assured that there would be no war. But war has come, and thousands of the precious lives of our gallant lads have been lost — and thousands more will yet be lost. We cannot trust the German tradesman who has even lived long among us apparently honourable and highly respected. A case in point is that of a man who, for the past twenty-six years, has carried on a prosperous business in the North of London. At the outbreak of war he registered himself as an alien, and one day asked the police for a permit to travel beyond the regulation five miles in order to attend a concert. He was watched, and it was found that, instead of going to the concert, he had travelled in an opposite direction, where he had met and conferred with a number of his compatriots who were evidently secret agents. This is but one illustration of many known cases in the Metropolis. Can we still close our eyes to what Germany intends to do ? The Government knew the enemy's intentions when, in 1908, there was placed before them the Emperor's speech, which I have already reproduced. Perhaps it may not be uninteresting if I recotmt how I myself was approached by the German General Staff — and I believe others must have been approached in a like manner. 74 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND The incident only serves to show the " astute- ness '' — as lyord Haldane has so well put it — of our enemies. One day, in September, 1910, I received through a mutual friend, a lady, an invitation to dine at the house of a prominent official at the War Office, who, in his note to me, declared that he had greatly admired my patriotism, and asked me to dine en famille one Sunday evening. I accepted the invita- tion, and went. The official's name, I may here say, figures often in your daily news- papers to-day. To my great surprise, I found among the guests the German Ambassador, the Chancellor of the Embassy, the Military' and Naval Attaches with their ladies, and several popular actors and actresses. In a corner of the drawing-room after dinner, I found myself chatting with a German Attache, who turned the conversa- tion upon my anti-German writings. By his invitation, I met him at his club next day. He entertained me to an expensive luncheon, and then suddenly laughed at me for what he termed my misguided propaganda. '' There will be no war between your country and mine," he assured me. '' You are so very foolish, my dear Mr. lyC Queux. You will min your reputation by these fixed ideas of yours. Why not change them ? We desire no quarrel with Great Britain, but we, of course, reaHse that you are doing what you consider to be your duty." '* It is my duty," I responded. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 75 My diplomatic friend sucked at his cigar, and laughed. " As a literary man you, of course, write to interest the public. But you would interest your public just as easily by writing in favour of Germany — and, I tell you that we should quickly recognise the favour you do us — and recompense you /or it.'' 1 rose from my chair. I confess that I grew angry, and I told him what was in my mind. I gave him a message to his own Secret Service, in Berlin, which was very terse and to the point, and then I left the room. But that was not all. I instituted inquiries regarding the official at the War Office who had been the means of introducing us, and within a fortnight that official — whose deal- ings with the enemy were proved to be suspicious — was relieved of his post. I give this as one single instance of the cunning manner in which the German Secret Service have endeavoured to nobble and bribe me, so as to close my mouth ,and thus combat my activity. Another instance was when the Nord- deutscher lyloyd Line, of Bremen, kindly invited me to take a voyage round the world, free of expense, so that I might visit the various German colonies and write some descriptions of them. And, on a third occa- sion, German diplomats were amazingl}^ kind to me, both in Constantinople and in Belgrade, 76 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND .and again broadly hinted at their readiness to win me over to their side. How pitiable, how absolutely criminal our apathy has been ! Do not the souls of a milUon dead upon the battlefields of France and Belgium rise against the plotters to-day ? Does not the onus of the frightful loss of the flower of our dear lads He, not upon our four-hundred-a- year legislators, but upon some of the golfing, dividend-seeking, pushful men who have ruled our country through the past ten years ? Without politics, as I am, I here wish to pay a tribute — the tribute which the whole nation should pay — to Mr. JJkiyd George and his advisers, who came in for so muc"H^ adverse criticism before the war. I declare as my opinion — an opinion which milHons share — that the manner in which the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer faced and grappled with the financial situation at the outbreak of war, was an illustration of British pluck, of coolness and of readiness that is unequalled in our history. The poor suffered nothing, and to-day — even though we are struggHng for our very existence — we hear not a word of that winter-cry '' The Unemployed." I trust, therefore, that the reader will find my outspoken criticisms just, and perfectly without prejudice, for, as I have already stated, my only feeHng is one of pure patriot- ism towards my King and the country that gave me birth. Though I am beyond the age-limit to serve GERMAN SPIES IN ENGlvAND 77 in^the Army, it is in defence of my King and country, and in order to reveal the naked truth to a public which has so long been pitiably bamboozled and reassured, that I have ventured to pen this plain, serious, and straightforward indictment, which no amount of official juggling can ever disprove. CHAPTER VI SOME METHODS OF SECRET AGENTS Some of the cases of espionage within my own knowledge — and into many of them I have myself made discreet inquiry — may not prove uninteresting. Foreign governesses, usually a hard-worked an^ poorly-paid class, are often in a position to furnish important information, and very serious cases have recently been proved against them. These young women have lived in the intimacy of the homes of men of every grade. Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, financiers, officers of both Services, and officials of every class. By the very nature of their duties, and their extreme intimacy with their em- ployers, they are, naturally, in a position to gather much valuable information, and often even to get sight of their employers' corre- spondence, which can easily be noted and handed over to the proper quarter for trans- mission to Berlin. Here is a case already reported by me. Not very long ago, in the service of a very well-known Member of Parliament living in Essex, lived a clever, good-looking, and in- tensely musical young German governess, GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 79 who was regarded by the Member's wife as " a perfect treasure/' and who took the greatest interest in her two Httle charges. For over two years Fraulein had been in the service of this pleasant household, being, of course, regarded as " one of the family." In the grounds of the big country house in question was a secluded summer-house, and here Fraulein was in the habit of reading alone, and writing her letters. One hot summer's afternoon she had gone there as usual, when about an hour later one of the under-gardeners, in passing, saw her lying back in her chair unconscious. She had been seized with a fit. He raised the alarm, she was carried back to the house, and the doctor was at once telephoned for. Meanwhile her mistress, greath^ alarmed, went out to the summer-house in order to see whether her unconsciousness could be accounted for. Upon the table she noticed a number of documents which did not appear to be letters which a governess might receive, and, on examination, she found to her dismay that, not only were they carefully- written reports of conversations between her husband and a certain Cabinet Minister who had been their guest during the previous week-end, but there were also copies of several confidential letters from one of the Government depart- ments to her husband. That the girl w^as a clever and most dangerous spy was at once proved, yet, rather than there should be any 80 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND unpleasant publicity, the girl was, that same night, packed off unceremoniously across to the Hook of Holland. In another instance a German governess in the employ of an officer's wife at Chatham was discovered endeavouring to obtain confi- dential information ; and in a third, at Plymouth, a charming young lady was caught red-handed. These three glaring cases are within my own knowledge ; therefore, there probably have been many others where, after detection, the girls have been stmimarily dismissed by their employers, who, naturally, have hesi- tated to court publicity by prosecution. It therefore behoves everyone employing a foreign governess — and more especially any- one occupying an official position — to be alert and wary. Many of these young ladies are known to have been trained for the dastardly work which they have been so successfully carrying out, and, while posing as loyal and dutiful servants of their employers, and eating at their tables, they have been listening attentively to their secrets. We have, of late, been told a good deal of the danger of secret agents among the alien staffs of hotels, and, in deference to public opinion, the authorities have cleared our hotels of all Germans and Austrians. Though holding no brief for the alien servant, I must say, at once, that I have never known one single instance of a hotel servant of lower grade being actually proved to be a secret GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 81 agent. It is a fact, however, that among the hall-porters of some of the principal hotels were, until the outbreak of war, several well- known spies. The class of person who is much more dangerous is the so-called '' natur- alised '' alien. Among these are, no doubt, spies, men who have long ago taken out naturahsation papers for the sole purpose of bUnding us, and of being afforded opportuni- ties to pursue their nefarious caUing. To-day, while thousands of men who have for years worked hard for a Hving are in idleness in detention camps, these gentry are free to move about where they will because they are so-called British subjects. Surely the heart of a German is always German, just as the heart of a true-born Briton is always British, whatever papers he may sign. I contend that every German who has been '' naturaUsed '' during the last seven years should be treated as other aliens are treated, and we shotild then be nearer the end of the spy-peril. '' Naturalised '' foreign baronets, financiers, merchants, ship-owners, and persons of both sexes of high social standing, constitute a very grave peril in our midst, though Mr. McKenna has not yet appeared to have awakened to it, even though the Press and the pubHc are, happily, no longer bHnd to the German preparations. In the month of November, while spies were being reported in hundreds by the pubHc themselves, the Home Office was actually engaged in holding 82 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND an inquiry into whether there had really been any atrocities committed hy the German soldiery in Belgium I And I was officially asked to assist in this ! As far as can be gathered from Mr. McKenna's reply in November to the Parlia- mentary attack on the methods of dealing with the spy peril, the position was still a most unsatisfactory one. Though he ad- mitted that we still have 27,000 enemy aliens at large among us, nobody is assumed to be a spy unless he is an unnaturalised German. Even if he fulfils this condition, he is then to be caught '' in the act '' of spying, or if really strong suspicion be aroused, some evidence against him may be ''looked for.*' But until this is ''found," and so long as he complies with the posted- up registration orders, etc., he may continue unmolested. In short, after the steed is stolen, our stable door may be shut. One sighs in despair. Could anything be more hopeless ? If the matter were not so very serious, the position would be Gilbertian in its comedy. Though we are at war, our sons being shot down and our national existence threatened, yet there is yet another very strong factor in favour of the German spy. According to Mr. McKenna, he himself is only responsible for the London district, while elsewhere the County Constabulary, under the Chief Con- stables of Counties, are " to pay every atten- tion to representations of the naval and GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 83. military authorities/' in the matter of hostile espionage.* This strikes me as one of the finest examples of *' how not to do if that we have heard of for some time, and it must indeed be a source of delight to the secret *' enemy within, our gates." Fancy such a ridiculous regula- tion in Germany ! Of some of the hundreds of cases of un- doubted espionage which have been brought to my notice since the outbreak of war, I will enumerate a few. One was that of two Germans who — posing as Poles — rented a large country house at £150 a year, bought a quantity of furniture, and settled down to a quiet life. The house in question was situated at a very important point on the main London and North Western Railway, and the grounds ran down to a viaduct which, if destroyed, would cut off a most important line of communication. The suspicion of a neighbour was aroused. He informed the police, and a constable in full uniform began to make inquiries of the neighbours, the result being that the interest- ing pair left the house one night, and have not since been seen. * Even at this moment of our peril, it is doubtful if the"public will find at New Scotland Yard a single detective able to pass himself off as a German and thus be in a position to make close investigation. There are, certainly, several who speak German, but in a dozen words they betray liheir British nationality. Surely the police cannot hope for good results without possessing agents competent to carry out what is a difl&cult and delicate task. The Extradition Department is no longer what it was under Chief-Inspector Greenham. 84 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Outside London, the county constabulary are making praiseworthy efforts to find spies, but when men in uniform set out to make inquiries — as they unfortunately do in so many cases — then the system becomes hopeless. The same thing happened in a small coast town in Norfolk where signalling at night had been noticed. Indeed, in two instances in the same town, and again in Dunbar, the appearance of the poUce inspector caused the flight of the spies — as undoubtedly they were. As regards the county of Norfolk, it has long received the most careful attention of German secret agents. At the outbreak of war the Chief Constable, Major Egbert Napier, with commendable patriotism, devoted all his energies to the ferreting out of suspicious characters, spies who were no doubt settled near and on the coast in readiness to assist the enemy in case of an attempted landing. By Major Napier's untiring efforts a very large area has been cleared, more especially from Cromer along by Sheringham, Wey- bourne — a particularly vulnerable point — and from Cley-next-the-Sea to Wells and King's Lynn. Major Napier engaged, at my instigation, a well-known detective-officer who, for some years, had been engaged at the Criminal Investigation Department at New Scotland Yard, specially attached to deal with German criminals for extradition back to Germany. He was a Russian, naturahsed EngUsh, and spoke German perfectly, being born in Riga — GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 85 and an ideal officer to inquire into the whole German spy system in Norfolk. Well, after Major Napier had asked him to go forth on his mission, I saw him and wished him all success. Within a fortnight this shrewd officer returned to me with a hopeless story. Wherever he went the Coast- guard refused to tell him anything, or any of their suspicions, as they said they were sworn to secrecy, while the superintendents and inspectors of the Norfolk Constabulary — with few exceptions — even though he bore proper credentials signed by the Chief Con- stable himself, actually refused to give him any assistance or information whatsoever ! This keen and clever detective-officer re- turned to the Chief Constable of Norfolk and told him that he was certain spies still existed along the coast, but expressed regret at the hopeless state of affairs. If any Government authority would like to question the officer upon his experiences, I shall be pleased to furnish that department with his private address. I had a curious experience myself in Norfoll^. In a field, high upon the cliff between Cromer and Runton, I last year established a high-power wireless installation. When in working order — with a receiving range of 1,500 miles or more, according to atmospheric conditions — I allowed visitors to inspect' it. There came along certain inquisitive persons with a slight accent in their speech, and of 86 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND these I believe no fewer than eight are now interned. It formed quite an interesting trap for spies ! From the great mass of authentic reports of German spies lying before me as I write, it is difficult to single out one case more illuminating than another. It may perhaps be of interest, however, to know that I was the first to report to the authorities a secret store of German arms and ammunition in London, afterwards re- moved, and subsequently seized after the outbreak of war. Other stores have, it is said, been found in various parts of the country, the secrets of which, of course, have never been allowed to leak out to the public, for fear of creating alarm. That secret stores of petrol, in readiness for that raid upon us by Zeppelins which Germany has so long promised, have been thought to exist in Scotland, is shown by the reward of £100, offered by the Commander- in-Chief in Scotland for any information lead- ing to the discovery of any such bases. But in connection with this, the situation is really most ludicrous. Though, on Novem- ber 8th, 1914, a London newspaper reproduced a copy of the poster offering the reward — a poster exhibited upon hoardings all over Scotland — yet the Press Censor actually issued to the London Press orders to suppress all fact or comment concerning it ! We may surely ask why ? If Scotland is told the truth, why may not England know it ? GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 87 Between Rye and Winchelsea of late, on four occasions, people have been detected flashing lights from the most seaward point between those places to German submarines. In fact, two of the spies actually had the audacity to build a shanty from which they signalled ! This matter was promptly re- ported by certain residents in the locality to the Dover military authorities, but they replied that it was '* out of their division." Then they reported to the Admiralty, but only received the usual typewritten '' thanks " in these terms : — " The Director of the Intelligence Division presents to Mr. his compliments, and begs to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of his letter of . " Admiralty War StafE : Intelligence Division." Now what happened ? Early in the morning of December 10th, in the midst of a thick hazy rain, half-a-dozen German submarines are reported to have made a daring dash for the western entrance of Dover Harbour, where several of our warships were lying at anchor. Fortunately they were discovered by men working the searchlights, heavy guns were turned upon them, and one submarine, if not more, was sunk. We have to thank spies in the vicinity for this attempt, in which we so narrowly escaped disaster. If not through spies, how could the enemy have known that, just at the time the attack was made, Dover 88 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND was without its boom-defence ? And the question arises whether the spies were those detected near Rye ? In all probability there exists somewhere in the neighbourhood a secret wireless station sufficiently powerful to send intelligence say five miles to sea by day, and double that distance at night. By this means the enemy's submarines could easily learn the truth. Therefore the authorities should lose no time in making domiciliary visits to any house where a suspect may be living. And if secret wireless exists near Dover, then there may be — as there probably are, since small wireless stations are not costly to fit up, and could, till the outbreak of war, be purchased without arousing the least suspicion — other stations in the vicinity of other of our naval bases, the peril of which will easily be recognised. The replies by the Admiralty to persons who give information are curt and unsatis- factory enough, yet if a resident in the MetropoHtan area writes to the Chief Com- missioner of Police upon a serious matter concerning espionage — he will not even receive the courtesy of a reply ! At least, that has been my own experience. It is appalling to think that the authorities are so utterly incapable of dealing with the situation to-day, even though our men are laying down their lives for us, and fighting as only Britons can fight. Existence of carefully-prepared concrete GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 89 emplacements, in readiness for the huge German Krupp guns, has been reported to me from a dozen different quarters — some- times they are concealed in the form of a concrete carriage-drive, in others as a tennis- court, or a yard enclosed by stables. Work- men who have actually been employed in laying them down, and have given me the enormous thicknesses of the concrete used, have communicated with me, and indicated where these long-considered preparations of the enemy are to-day to be found. But as it is nobody's business, and as Mr. McKenna has assured us that we are quite safe, and that the spy-peril has been snuffed- out, the position is here again hopeless, and we are compelled to live daily upon the edge of a volcano. Oh ! when will England rub her eyes and awaken ? As events have proved in Belgium and France, so here, in our own dear country, I fear we have spies in every department of the public service. I say boldly, without fear of contradiction — that if our apathetic Home Department continues to close its eyes as it is now doing, we shall be very rudely stirred up one day when the Zeppelins come in force — as the authorities fear by the darkening of London. From the lessons taught us in France, I fear that in every department of our public services, the post-office, the rail- ways, the docks, the electric generating- stations, in our arsenals, in our government 90 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND factories, and among those executing certain government contracts — everywhere, from Wick to Walmer — the spy still exists, and he is merely awaiting the signal of his masters to strike : to blow up bridges and tuimels, to destroy water-supplies, docks, power- stations and wireless-stations : to cut tele- graphs and telephones, and to create panic — a sudden and fearful panic — which it would be to the interest of the invaders to create. At my suggestion the Postmaster-General, at the outbreak of war, ordered each letter- carrier in the Kingdom to prepare lists of foreigners on their '' walk," and upon those lists hundreds of arrests of aliens took place. No doubt many spies were '' rounded-up " by this process, but alas ! many still remain, sufficient of the '* naturalised," — even those '' naturalised " after the war, — to form a very efficient advance-guard to our invading enemy, who hate us with such a deadly, undying hatred. If Zeppelins are to raid us successfully they must have secret bases for the supply of petrol for their return journey. Such bases can only be established in out-of-the-way places where, on descending, air-craft would not be fired upon. The moors, those of Yorkshire, Dartmoor, and certain districts of Scotland and the I^ake Country, are admirably adapted for this purpose, for there are spots which could easily be recognised from the air — by the direction of the roads, running like GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 91 ribbons across the heather — where consider- able stores could easily be secreted without anyone being the wiser. This is a petrol war, and if any raid is attempted upon the country, petrol will be wanted in great quantities by the enemy. Is it not, therefore, with our knowledge of Germany's long-completed preparations at Maubeuge, iVntwerp, along the heights of the Aisne, and in other places, quite safe to assume that considerable — even greater — pre- parations have already been made in our own country — made in the days when the British public were lulled to sleep by the Judas- like assurances of the Kaiser and his friendly visits to our King, and when any honest attempt to lift the veil was met with abuse and derision. If we assume that preparations have been made, it is, surely, our duty to now discover them. Petrol and ammunition are the two things which the enemy will want if they dare to attempt a dash upon our coast. Therefore it would be very wise for the authorities to make a house-to-house visitation, and search from garret to cellar all premises until lately occupied by aliens in the Eastern Counties, and all houses still occupied by '' naturahsed " foreigners, who, if they were honestly '' British subjects " as they declare, could not possibly object. There are many licensed premises, too, held by the '' naturalised,'' and the cellars of these should certainly be searched. Hundreds of 92 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND *' naturalised '' Germans and Austrians'^are living — immune from even suspicion. They are of all grades, from watchmakers and hotel-keepers to wealthy financiers. If only the Government would deal with the " naturaHsed/' as any sane system of Government would in these unparalleled cir- cumstances, then it would give a free hand to the Chief Constables of lyincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent to clear out, once and for ever, the canker-worm of espionage which has, alas ! been allowed to eat so very nearly into Britain's heart. I am not affected by that disease known as spy-mania. I write only of what I know, of what I have witnessed with my own eyes and have heard with my own ears. I therefore appeal most strongly, with all my patriotism, to the reader, man or woman, to pause, to reflect, to think, and to demand that justice shall, at this crisis of our national life, be done. We want no more attempts to gag the Press, no evasive speeches in the House — no more pandering to the foreign financier or bestowing upon him Birthday Honours : no more kid-gloved legislation for our monied enemies whose sons, in some cases, are fighting against us, but sturdy, honest and deliberate action — the action with the iron-hand of justice in the interests of our own beloved Empire. CHAPTER VII MASTER-SPIES AND THEIR CUNNING We shall probably never be able to realise a hundredth part of what Germany has done by her spy system, but we know enough to realise that, for years, no country and no walks of life — from the highest to the lowest — have been free from the presence of her ubiquitous and unscrupulous secret agents. Nothing in the way of espionage has been too large, or too small, for attention. Her spies have swarmed in all cities, and in every village ; her agents have ranked among the leaders of social and commercial life, and among the sweepings and outcasts of great communities. The wealthiest of commercial men have not shrunk from acting as her secret agents. She has not been above employing beside them the Very dregs of the community. No such a system has ever been seen in the world ; I hope it is safe to say that no such system will ever be seen again. Indeed, so despicable is this German spy system that even the leader of the Opposition in the Reichstag, Herr Richter, one day rose from his seat and protested 94 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND against " the more than doubtful morality of the individuals employed." This protest was made because it was known that the Secret Service of Germany countenanced rank immorality and vice, the suborning of high officials, and the shameless engagement of women of ill-fame in the search for informa- tion. The official feeling in Germany con- cerning such debased methods was well illustrated by the reply of Herr Von Putt- kamer, the Minister for the Interior, who said : — " It is the right and duty of the State to employ special and extraordinary methods, and even if that honest and estimable functionary, PoHce- Councillor RumpS, has employed the methods of which he is accused, in order to secure for the State the benefits of useful intelHgence, I here pubHcly express to him my satisfaction and thanks." That statement is certainly informing. It reveals to us the low, vile methods of our enemies. The German spy system, as we know it to-day, is the creation of one Carl Stieber, and it dates back to about the year 1850. Stieber, who was an obscure Saxon, began his career of espionage by betraying the revolutionary Socialists, with whom he pre- tended to sympathise, and so successful was he in this respect that he very soon obtained employment among the regular police, and was afterwards created head of a department GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 95 which finally worked quite independently, and was beyond police control. Stieber could never have achieved the success he did but for the luck or good management which, during his work among the revolutionaries, brought him to the notice of Frederick William, the King of Prussia. Under the royal patronage he was secure against counter-plotters among the military and the police, both of whom hated him Icyond measure as an interloper who was seen to be dangerous to their interests. Up to this time, it should be remembered, the game of espionage, so far as military matters were concerned, had been a matter solely for the military authorities, and they did not fail to resent the new influence, which very speedily threatened to make itself all-powerful — as, indeed, it ultimately did — in this par- ticular field of Prussian activity. It must not be supposed that Stieber — upon whose model the Russian Secret Police was afterwards established — confined his activities to either the enemies or the criminals of Prussia. He established a close watch on persons even of high rank, and many a tit-bit of information went to regale the mind of his royal master. In a sense, Frederick William was, like the modern Kaiser, the master-spy, for without his confidence Stieber could never have achieved the success he did, against both the miUtary and the police, influences which, even in those days, were 96 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND almost, but not quite, all-powerful in Germany. Stieber's greatest achievement in the field of actual sp3dng was his work which led to the crushing of Austria at Sadowa in 1866. At this he laboured for years, and it is not too much to say that his work assured the success of the campaign. By the time the Prussian armies were on the move, Stieber had established such an army of spies and agents throughout Bohemia, that it was a matter of absolute impossibiUty for the unfortunate Austrians to make a single move without information being promptly carried to their enemies. So successful was Stieber's method found, that it was only natural that it should be tried in other countries. France was the next victim, and the campaign of 1870-71 is so recent that it is hardly necessary to do more than remind the reader how thoroughly the Germans were served by their spy system. As in the present war, the advancing Germans found, in every town and village, swarms of agents who were ready to provide them with information and guidance, and it was even said that the German invaders were better acquainted with the country they were attacking than were the officers entrusted with its defence. We have seen the same thing in the present war, when time after time the Germans have been led into towns and districts by men who have Hved there GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 97 for years and, in many cases, had even become naturalised Frenchmen the better to carry on their work. It speaks volumes for the perfection of the German miUtary machine that, on the outbreak of hostiUties, these men should have been able, without the slightest difficulty, to join the corps operating in the districts with which they had become perfectly familiar by years of residence. And they were able, not merely to give topographical information, but even to indi- cate where stores of food and petrol could be found, and to point out to their comrades Vhere the best prospects of loot and plunder existed. All this was merely a natural development of the system which Carl Stieber established, and which his successors have developed to the highest pitch of unscrupulous perfection. After the war of 1870-71, the system which Stieber invented found its place in German administration, and it has continued ever since as a separate and highly-organised department, spending vast sums of money — about £720,000 a year — and extending its ramifications to an incredible extent. It may be mentioned, incidentally, that its workings and methods have been copied by the German commercial world, and many a British employer has, during the past few years, paid dearly through his closest com- mercial secrets being given away to his keenest German rivals by the patient, diligent 98 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND and hard-working German clerk, who was willing to work for a mere pittance for the advantage of '' learning English/' and study- ing British methods. There cannot now be the slightest doubt that thousands of these German employees were, before the war, really in the pay of German firms, and were busily engaged in sending to Germany all the information they could possibly pick up which would tend to help the German and injure the British merchant and manufacturer. I hope they have over-reached themselves, and that when the war is over we shall see a great deal less of the English worker being supplanted by spying Germans, whose appar- ent cheapness has been the costliest labour Englishmen have ever employed. *' Never trust or employ a German, and always make him pay cash '' ought to be the British commercial motto for the future. Stieber died in the early nineties, but he was succeeded by others quite as clever, and even more unscrupulous than himself, some of whom — though by no means all — have become faintly known to us through the revelations made in the too few cases of espionage where prosecution has been under- taken by our sleepy authorities. I say '* very few,'* of course, in the comparative meaning of the phrase. Actually, there have been a fair number of cases, but when we consider the slyness of German methods we must come GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 99 to the conclusion that not a fraction of the whole have been dealt with, in spite of the amusing claim of Mr. McKenna that he has succeeded in smashing the German spy organ- isation in this country. Our leniency in this respect is a matter of amazement to people in France, and other countries where, from bitter experience, the German spy-peril is better understood, and it is also a matter of some resentment. Every blow at England, it is argued, injures the cause of the Allies as a whole, and the worst blows are likely enough to be struck by the undetected and unpunished spy. In almost every case of espionage in England in recent years, the name of Stein- hauer, '' of Potsdam,** has figured promin- ently. He is, at the moment, the chief of the Kaiser's spy-system, and there is no doubt that he fully enjoys the confidence and friendship of his royal master. Steinhauer — as he is known to our Secret Service — is an officer in the Prussian Guard, and is about forty years of age. Personally, he is a man of charming manners, of splendid education, and of excellent presence, capable of taking his place — as he has frequently done — in the very best society. Steinhauer — the man of a hundred aliases — acting under the direct instructions of the Kaiser, and with the closest support and co-operation of the German military authorities, established in England such a network of naval and 100 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND military spies as, when it was tardily dis- covered, fairly made our authorities aghast. The allegations I have made in these pages are borne out by Mr. McKenna's own ad- mission, that hardly anything was done in the matter until about the year 1911 ; yet, as I have indicated, long before this the Germans were actually plotting war against England, and were preparing for it and looking forward to the day when they might hope to wage it with every prospect of success. The following extract from a pubUc state- ment by the Home Secretary is worth quoting. It will be noticed that Steinhauer's name is not mentioned, but there is no doubt that he was the head of the organisation of which the Home Secretary speaks. Mr. McKenna stated in his remarkable and somewhat ludicrous communique of October 9th, 1914 :— " The Special Intelligence Department . . . was able in three years, from 1911 to 1913, to discover the ramifications of the German Secret Service in England. In spite of enormous effort and lavish expenditure by the enemy, little valuable informa- tion fell into their hands. . . . There is good reason to believe that the spy organisation, crushed at the outbreak of the war, has not been re-estab- lished. . . . How completely that system had been suppressed in the early days of the war is clear from the fact disclosed in a German Army Order — that on 21st August the German miUtary com- manders were ignorant of the dispatch and move- ments of the British Expeditionary Force, although these had been known for many days to a large number of people in this country." GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 10 1 Such an attempt as this td Ivdl us into a false sense of security was little short of criminal. If not from spies, asked a correspondent of the Globe, from whom did Germany obtain, in 1912, the very valuable information that oil was to be the sole source of motive power for the *' Queen Elizabeth '* (v. Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten, January, 1913) ? Certainly not from any English official source ; for we were kept entirely in the dark as to this momentous change until the Morning Post announced in July, 1913, that the battleship in question would consume liquid fuel only. Even minor details did not escape the notice of German spies during the period specified by Mr. McKenna. For instance, the Taschen- buch for 1914 contains this statement : — " ' Hermes/ at present tender to air-craft, and as such only carries eight Gin. guns." Yet it was not until the '* Hermes '' had been sunk in the Channel by a German submarine, that any official statement was made as to how she had been employed and her armament reduced! Again, there is irrefutable evidence to show that German agents were ready waiting in France for the disembarkation of at least some details of the British Expeditionary Force, and the whole world knows that the German Emperor's insolent reference to Sir John French's Army was made before August 21 st. i.a2:GERMAi^' SPIES IN ENGLAND Further evidence' of the activity of German spies before and since the outbreak of the war is to be found in the following extract from a letter written by an English naval officer, and published in the Times of Novem- ber 20th under the heading, " In the North Sea/' :— " Their (i.e., the Germans') submarines are out- side even now, and it seems funny where they get their information. But, at any rate, they are well served, as they knew where the Fleet was when we were at Devonport, and we did not know ourselves." Taking all these facts into consideration, it is evident that the German spy system is more than a match for the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty War Staff. Steinhauer — the chief of German Espionage — was the author and inspiration of these '' enormous efforts," and of the lavish expendi- ture of money. With unHmited means at his disposal from the German Secret Service funds, a close personal friend of the Kaiser, a man of undoubted ability, great charm of manner and unquestionable daring, the man known as Steinhauer must be ranked as one of the most dangerous of our enemies. I have met him more than once. He speaks English practically like an Englishman, and, out of uniform, might well pass for an Englishman in any cosmopoHtan gathering. About eight years ago he was appointed to look after the German Secret Service, with special GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 103 instructions from the Emperor to particularly devote himself to England. He made frequent visits to this country; he got to know many German residents here of the better class, whose efforts might be of value to him, and within twelve months — while our red-tape-tangled Government De- partments closed their eyes and dreamed — he had activel}^ at work a swarm of agents in every dockyard town and garrison where the picking up of information of value would be possible or likely. How he must have smiled ! Every important town and city, many villages on the coast, every naval base had its agent or agents, and there can be no doubt that it was the result of Steinhauer's wonderful activities that at last aroused even the supine British Home Office, which for years had jeered at me and reassured the public with official denials that there were no spies in England, and had laughed at the numerous warnings to them to '' sit up and take notice." And all this in face of a great and terrible national peril ! I would here like to pay a tribute to the thoroughness with which the Confidential Department have all along done their work. Up to the limits to which the staff were allowed to go, they did magnificently. There- can be no doubt that a good many of the most active German spies were detected and accounted for. The trouble is that the 104 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND Intelligence oflficers were not allowed to go far enough — indeed, since the war the director, who knew many of the spies personally, has actually been reHeved of his post. Why, we may well ask. Do not let us inquire, how- ever, but let us realise that after six months at war we still have at large amongst us some 27,000 alien enemies who would, in any other country, be safely under lock and key. This spy peril means the loss of our sons and our loved ones, and a blow at our Empire. Even the Department is subject to ordinary human limitations, and we shall never be free from the spy-peril until we recognise with Sherman that during war the military authority is superior to the civil ; until we insist with Sir Oliver Lodge that all foreign spies must be shot, and all native ones hanged . This Steinhauer's crowning act of daring and cool ''cheek'* came in 1911, when it is stated upon the best authority that he actually paid a visit to King George at Buckingham Palace, as a member of the German Emperor's personal suite ! In that year I met him. The Kaiser visited I^ondon to attend the unveiling by the King of the Queen Victoria Memorial. Steinhauer, the spy, was actually a member of his suite i Of the action of our false friend the Kaiser in this matter it is difficult to speak with patience. At this time, it should be remem- bered, he was professing the firmest friendship GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 105 for England, and more than one Cabinet Minister was ftill of his praise ; yet this pinch- beck Napoleon could find it within his notions of honour to introduce to England the one man of all others who was most active in the perfidious campaign against her. Can it be wondered that with such an example of treachery to lead them, German diplomatists made small ado about tearing up the solemn treaty which guaranteed the neutraUty of Belgium ! At this time, of course, Steinhauer's real mission was unknown to our Home Office, and, of course, Steinhauer is not his real name. It was not until later in the year that the Confidential Department fixed his identity and ascertained his true character. One sighs to realise the farce of it all. Then began a campaign in which the Germans were badly outwitted. Without giving the slightest indication that anything unusual was on foot, or had been discovered, the Special Department — under the director who is, alas ! no longer there — set to work. One branch of their activities was revealed in a recent case, when they calmly produced, in court, tracings of letters posted in London by Steinhauer's agents. For once the spy had been met and beaten at his own game. In the meantime, some of Steinhauer's chief agents had been identified, and were kept tmder the closest but most unostentatious surveillance. 106 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Arrests were made in a number of cases, and in many others information was secured which bore prompt fruit when war was declared, and over two hundred of the *' master-spy's " tools were captured in differ- ent parts of the country and interned. It is, however, beyond doubt that many of this man's agents, of greater or less influence or ability, are to-day still at liberty, and there is no doubt either that many have come over in the guise of Belgian refugees ; that, indeed, has been officially admitted. Of course, they are now working under enor- mously greater difficulties in getting informa- tion, owing to the increased severity of the watch kept at all places of importance. And even to send it away when they have got it is not easy, though no doubt it is arranged, through Italy, Denmark, or Scandinavia. Here is an instance reported by me to the authorities, as I considered it full of suspicion. Among the thousands of Belgian refugees arriving in England just before the fall of Antwerp — a city infested by German spies — there came among us a certain priest, with four other male companions. The priest explained to the Relief Committee which received him, that he was head of a certain college in Belgium. He and his companions were, at their own request, passed on to a provincial Relief Committee. There the priest's penurious position naturally aroused much sympathy, and he and his companions GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND J 07 were put into a good -sized house, given money for their maintenance, and petted by many charitable persons. The five were free to take observations in and around the place where they were domiciled. That our enemy would be glad of any details regarding it there can be no doubt. Then, of a sudden — in the first days of January — the priest, to the surprise of the Committee, announced the fact that as he had received a letter from the Cardinal Arch- bishop of his diocese, stating that many of his old pupils had returned, he must leave at once for home with two of his companions. One of the latter declared that he had to go to '* look after his cows " — as though the Germans would have left him any cows ! When questioned, the priest admitted that he held monies of the college which he must hand over. To say the least, their behaviour was highly suspicious. By some persons who became acquainted with this curious request the matter was viewed with considerable suspicion. There seemed no urgent reason why the refugees in question should re- turn, for their excuses, when challenged, were of the flimsiest character. However, they were able to obtain a sum of money, which went towards their travelling expenses. '^ j I at once went to the proper authorities — with the usual result. Officials '' got busy " scribbling reports and writing polite " acknow- ledgments," but nothing was done, and the 108 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND priest and his friends were allowed to cross to Flushing unmolested on January 5th. But while it may be true that the main spy organisation has been partially broken up — as Mr. McKenna would have us beUeve — it should not be supposed, by any means, that the peril is at an end. Letters can still be smuggled out of the country. To test this, I myself have communicated with friends in Germany since the war by sending my letters to Italy, where they were re-addressed, and replies have come by the same means. Signals can, and are still, undoubtedly being made to German submarines lying within easy distance of our East Coast. And there can be no doubt that the stream of secret German gold, part of the £720,000 a year, has, alas ! done its work all too well in inducing at least a few renegade Englishmen to betray their country. This thought leaves a nasty taste in one's mouth, but there are black sheep in all nations, and the black sheep of this kind are the master-spy's most precious instruments. Very few of them, fortunately or unfortunately, as we may choose to think, have been discovered ; but an example was made of one — the ex-naval gunner, Parrott — who, perhaps, was one of the worst examples. Much organising of the actual work of espionage in England is believed to have been carried on by Count von der Schulenberg, who was recently appointed Governor of Liege. A ver^^ interesting account of his GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 109 clever methods was published by the Daily Mail soon after his appointment was announced. Von der Schulenberg belongs to what is, unquestionably, the most dan- gerous type of spy — the monied man of good family, of a certain culture, enjoying the friendship of people in the better ranks of life, and above all, able to plead many hobbies to account for his presence in this country. We have many of a similar sort in our midst, posing as naturalised persons. It was in 1909 that Schulenberg — whom I met at the Hotel Cecil, where I was living — first settled in England. He took a flat in Jermyn Street, where he spent a considerable time, probably in the work of familiarising himself with the ramifications of the German spy system in this country. He became well known among the German colony in the West End, and he was in the habit of spending considerable periods on some mysterious errands ; at any rate he often disappeared for days from his favourite haunts. About two years ago this Schulenberg left Jermyn Street — and the Hotel Cecil, where he often came in to see his friends — and went to live in Borough Green, Kent, a quiet village within easy reach of Chatham Dock- yard. Here he posed, of all things in the world, as a poultry fancier ! Here he spent a good deal of time, sparing no pains to ingratiate himself with everybody in the district, and, to a great extent, succeeding. no GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND We next hear of him as a '* breeder of bulldogs '' in the little village of Hemley-on- Deben, in Suffolk, not far from Harwich. This was about the middle of 1913. The amusing part of his pose here is that it was quite obvious to everyone that he knew nothing whatever about the subject which he made his hobby ! He was utterly ignorant of bulldogs, and everything pertaining to them. However, they served as the excuse he wanted to cover his real operations. It is not thought that this Schulenberg did any actual spying ; it is more probable that he was merely an agent and a '* cover " for the work of others. That he may have been an organiser under Steinhauer is probable enough, and it is known that he received visits from mysterious Germans, to one of whom, in particular, he paid considerable deference. After his departure, a very signifi- cant statement is said to have been made by a young man who is now serving in our army at the front. This man asserted that if he had been wiUing to do what von Schulenberg asked him, he would, by this time, *' have been a rich man, able to drive his own motor-car.'' We can make a pretty good guess as to the class of service that was sought. Many other cases of a similar nature that have come to light make it plain that Great Britain was systematically divided out into territories, for the purpose of espionage, each GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 1 1 1 territory having a head spy, or agent, to whom all others under him were responsible, and to whom they gave their reports for trans- mission to the headquarters of the German spy system in Brussels. These cases are too numerous to mention individually, and it will be sufficient to quote one as an example, that of Captain X , of Manchester. The captain was originally arrested for having — needless to say he was a German — travelled more than five miles from the city without permission. When the case came on the magistrates took the view that the offence was a mere oversight, and inflicted a small fine. Later, however, certain facts came to light, and the captain was re-arrested at the instance of the miUtary authorities. Great importance was attached to the case, as the authorities believed that through it they would be able to lay their hands upon centres, not only in the North of England, but also in lyondon, through which the Germans were in receipt of important information. Captain X was a man of the type who have done excellent service for Germany among the too trustful English. Of charming manners, apparently a rich man, and very '' English " in his ways, he was able to move in good society, and numbered among his friends many prominent Manchester people. But there was another side to his character of which his Manchester friends were not aware. 112 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND One of his favourite haunts was a certain German club in the city. Here he was seen ahnost nightly, and it was noticed that he seemed to have a great friendship for certain hotel-waiters of German nationality, who, like himself, were members. These club waiters, who evidently possessed an amount of cash which is not common among men participating in the *' tronc,*' were constantly occupied with the captain in a private room. They '' did themselves well," and in course of time they attracted the attention of certain Englishmen who were also members of the club. It could not escape notice that German waiters were rather curious friends for an apparently wealthy man moving in the best society in Manchester, and there is only one explanation of their common activities. Of the captain's ultimate fate I am ignorant, but we may assume that by this time he is beyond the capacity of doing us further harm, at any rate for a considerable time. ** Place aux dames I " Among the '' master spies '* of the Kaiser we must certainly include a proportion of the fair sex — those women of lax morals discussed in the Reich- stag. And of all the perplexing problems with which our authorities have had to deal of late, there is none more difficult than that of women who have been acting as agents of German espionage. It is a popular jibe that a woman cannot keep a secret. Never was a popular opinion GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 113 worse founded. To the spy no quality is more essential than the ability to hold his tongue — a casual word may be enough to betray him under circumstances in which he might think himself absolutely safe. And if some women, at any rate, could not be trusted to set a very rigid seal on their lips, the Kaiser and other spy-masters would be robbed of some of their most able and desperate agents. History has shown us that the woman-spy is, if anything, far more dangerous than the man, once she gives herself heart and soul to the business. And the reason is obvious : she brings to bear subtle influences — especially if she is of the half-world — which are far beyond the capacity of the male spy. More often than not, she simply works on a man's passions, and there are endless cases of men who have given away important secrets not for mere sordid motives, but through the wiles of a pretty little woman by whom they have been temporarily enslaved. The woman- spy, as a rule, must be possessed of great personal charm of manner, and more than a share of good looks — often they are minor actresses or ladies of no profession. They are, indeed, the aristocrats of the spy pro- fession, for they can work with good prospects of success in cases where the ordinary lure of money would be rejected with scorn, and, probably, personal violence if it were proffered. 114 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND Now, it is absolutely foreign to the British character to take any steps against women of whatever class unless there are very clear grounds upon which to act. We may be quite sure that this fact is fully recognised by the authorities at Potsdam. There are to-day, in London — many around Piccadilly Circus, and practically uncontrolled — hundreds of German women, clever and capable, who are an unmistakable danger to our country. What to do with them is, admittedly, not a problem easy of solution. We, as Britons, do not want to inflict on women the un- avoidable hardships of the concentration camps if it can be avoided, but we certainly do want to protect ourselves. The suggestion has been made that these women should be compulsorily repatriated, and it seems as good a way of dealing with the difiiculty as any. One of the most notorious of the German woman agents is believed to have come over to this country immediately after the fall of Brussels. She is said to be an exceed- ingly accomplished woman, very good-looking, and widely travelled, and speaking seven languages. The Confidential Department are to-day keeping her under observation. A woman of this kind is especially dangerous owing to her ability to pass in any class of society, and it is to be hoped that the Department has been able to curtail her opportunities for mischief. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 115 As I have, over and over again, stated in the course of these past few years of Britain's slumber, the tremendous extent of the German spy system cannot be over-estimated, nor can it be too strongly impressed upon the public. Nothing is too large, or too small, for the net of German espionage ; no agent can be too highly, or too lowly, placed. From the few chiefs who really control the dastardly work, designed for our undoing, radiate channels which stretch into every department of life, pouring in a constant stream of facts of greater or less importance, but all having their proper place when correlated and arranged by the keen brains in Berlin devoted to the work. Never let it be forgotten that an apparently trivial incident may be the key for which the spy is patiently seeking, and that even a seemingly baseless rumour transmitted by the humble German, as the result of eavesdropping during his employment, may set the master- brain at work upon some matter of over- whelming importance. CHAPTER VIII THE SPY AND THK I^AW There is a vast amount of misconception in the public mind on the subject of spying, and an almost complete ignorance of the law of dealing with spies, military and civil, in time of peace and in time of war. The subject is one which absolutely bristles with anomalies and incongruities. In all times and in all countries, and by the great majority of people, spying has been condemned as something essentially dishonourable — to call a man a spy has always been regarded as one of the deadhest insults. Yet here we have at once the first, and perhaps the most striking, anomaly of the spy business — the men of unblemished personal honour, who, unquestionably, would not descend to any act which, in their views, was even tainted with meanness, have acted as spies. I will mention a few of these cases presently ; in the nieantime, it wiU be well to consider what international law has to say on the subject. Naturally enough, the subject of spying met with a good deal of consideration on the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 117 part of the members of the Hague Convention, and, so far as there can be said to be inter- national law in the matter, it is expressed in the conventional laws of war drawn up by the assemblage. The following Articles of the Convention dealing with the subject may be usefully quoted : — ARTICLE XXIX. A person can only be considered a spy when, acting clandestinely, or on false pretences, he obtains or endeavours to obtain information in the zone of operations of a belligerent with the intention of communicating it to the hostile party. Thus, soldiers not wearing a disguise who have penetrated into the zone of operations of the hostile army for the purpose of obtaining information are not considered spies. Similarly, the following are not considered spies : Soldiers and civiUans, carrying out their mission openly, entrusted with the dehvery of despatches intended either for their own army or for the enemy's army. To this class belong likewise persons sent in balloons for the purpose of carrying despatches, and generally of maintaining communications between the different parts of an army or a territory. ARTICIvE XXX. A spy taken in the act shall not be punished without previous trial. ARTICLE XXXI. A spy who after rejoining the army to which he belongs is subsequently captured by the enemj-, is treated as a prisoner of war, and incurs no responsibility for his previous acts of espionage. A very detailed and lucid exposition of 118 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND the law dealing with spies is given in Mr. J. M. Spaighfs **War Rights on Land/' perhaps the fullest and most authoritative source of information on the work of the Hague Convention in respect to war on land. Now, in the conduct of war early and accurate information is of supreme import- ance. One of the best instances of this on record was the capture of Marshal Macmahon's army by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. This, of course, was not the work of a spy, but it was the result of information which a spy might very well have obtained. A Paris paper published a statement indicat- ing that Macmahon's army had changed the direction of its march. This statement was telegraphed to London and appeared in the papers here. It caught the attention of the then German Ambassador, who, realising its value, promptly telegraphed it to Berlin. For Moltke, of course, this was a heaven-sent opportunity of which his military genius made the fullest use. A new movement was at once set on foot, and the result was the surrender of Macmahon with his entire force. Granting that information of equal value may at any moment be obtained by a clever spy, it is obvious that commanders in the field are not only entitled, but bound to take the most drastic measures to defend themselves against spies. The work of a single spy may wreck a campaign and settle GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 119 the fate of a nation, and here we have the real reason why the spy caught in the act is punished with relentless severity. '' Kill that spy " is, and should be, the rule of every commander in the field. Then arises another consideration of equal importance : every commander is entitled and bound to do his utmost to secure the best possible information as to the enemy's forces, their disposition, their size, and, above all, their intentions. It is of even more importance to understand what your enemy intends to do than to know the forces which he has available to carry out his plans. How, then, are we to draw a distinction between perfectly legitimate scouting and reconnaiss- ance work, which can involve no reprobation and no punishment, and the *' spying '' properly so called, which justifies the infliction of the death penalty ? The answer lies in a couple of words — Jthe spy acts,„. under false pretences, while the soTHieF^r scout acts quite openly ; though, of course, concealing himself from observation and detection, he does not adopt any disguise or discard his uniform. The result is, that under no circumstances can a soldier wearing his uniform be treated as a spy. He may dare and do anything ; if he is caught his sole punishment is that he is treated as a prisoner of war. So far as the soldier is concerned (the case of the civiHan spy will be dealt with presently) disguise is the essence 120 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND of spying. This point is clear beyond the possibiUty of misconception, and the com- mander who shot a soldier in uniform on the plea that he was acting as a spy would simply be committing a murder. Usually, a mihtary spy is a soldier who has laid aside his own uniform, and either adopted civiUan dress, or clothed himself in the uniform of the enemy, or a neutral, the better to escape detection. For such, there is no mercy ; the penalty of detection is death. The reason is obvious : the soldier in disguise is a far more dangerous enemy than the one who openly carries out his hostile acts. In war, as in peace, the enemy in disguise is most dangerous ; the false friend is the soldier's as well as the civilian's worst peril. Here we come to another anomaly : spying in itself is not a criminal act. That is clearly recognised by Article XXXI. of the Hague Convention already quoted. Consequently, unless he is taken in the act the spy is immune ; once he has regained his own Hues, and discarded his disguise, he is exempt from the consequences of his espionage, even though he were captured and identified ten minutes later. To constitute " spying " in the strict sense of the word, the offence must be carried out clandestinely, and in the war area. As we all know now, and as I and others pointed out years ago, the United Kingdom for many GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 121 years has been flooded with German agents busily engaged in picking up information on naval and military subjects which would be of value to Germany. It is important to recognise that these agents are not *' spies " in the strict sense of the word, since the United Kingdom is, happily, not within the war zone. In time of peace they could not be shot. When war began, however, they were guilty of '' war treason,'' and liable to the death penalty. The case of Carl Lody, with which I deal fully elsewhere, is a case in point, lyody was not accused of " spying,'' but of *' war treason." The word/' spy," however, is convenient, and no doubt it will continue to be used without undue regard to the technicalities. It is necessary, I think, to make it clear how eminent soldiers have found it not beneath their dignity and honour to act as spies, even in the face of the general oppro- brium which attaches to the spy. In the first place, the obtaining of information is essential to the successful conduct of war. Secondly, it is recognised that no moral guilt attaches to the spy, as is shown by the fact that he can only be punished if he is taken in the act, and as a preventive measure. Thirdly, we must remember that only a very brave man, ready to lay down his life for his country, could bring himself to act as a spy in war time. The spy, let it not be forgotten, is under no illusions ; he takes his life in his 122 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND hands, and he knows it. If he is caught there is no help for him ; his doom is as certain as the rising of the sun. Only a man to whom his life was as nothing if risking it would serve his country's cause, would dare to undertake the perilous work of spying in time of war. Whatever other attributes the spy may possess, and many of them un- doubtedly are individuals of a very undesirable kind, the possession of courage must be granted to them. Naturally, it wiU be asked why the spy is so generally held in contempt, and, indeed, in abhorrence. That this should be so is, in all probability, due to a certain confusion of ideas between the soldier spy who, risking his life in war, may be playing a truly heroic part, and those miserable secret agents w^ho, in time of peace and without risk, abuse for gold a nation's hospitahty with the deliberate intention of working her ruin when war comes, or, still w^orse, the traitor who is ready to sell the interests of his own country. And it is one of the anomalies of the whole subject that the traitor who is ready to sell his country's interests to a possible enemy should, in time of peace, be punishable only by penal servitude, while the truly brave and often heroic soldier who in time of war risks his life in his country's cause, should meet certain death if he is detected. Let us assume for a moment that a man of the former class, the day before the war broke GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 123 out, had sold to Germany information of some secret upon which the safety of the British Empire depended. There is no such secret, but I assume it for the sake of argu- ment. His maximum punishment would have been penal servitude. Take next the case of a German soldier who, the day after war was declared, crept disguised into our lines and obtained information which might have enabled his commander to capture fifty British soldiers. We should have shot him without delay. Yet will anyone contend that there is anything comparable in the moral turpitude of the two acts ? It must not be understood, of course, that I am pleading for clemency for the spy ; my plea is for greater severity for the traitor ! We are now faced with another problem. If it is dishonourable to spy — and many eminent authorities, as well as pubUc opinion, generally hold this to be the case — it is unquestionably dishonourable to employ spies. Yet all commanders of all nations employ spies, and if any nation failed to do so, it might as well — as Lord - Wolseley said — sheathe its sword for ever. We can take it for granted that, in his many campaigns, Lord Wolseley made the fullest use possible of spies, and yet his personal honour need not be questioned. We certainly cannot say that he was dishonoured by the use of means often regarded as dishonourable. Moreover, great soldiers themselves have 124 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND not hesitated to act as spies. The history of war is full of such cases. Catinat spied in the disguise of a coal-heaver. Montluc dis- guised himself as a cook. Ashby, in the American Civil War, visited the Federal lines as a horse-doctor, while General Nathaniel lyyon visited the Confederate camp at St. Louis in disguise before he attacked and captured it. Against the personal honour of such men as these no word can be said, and, as Mr. Spaight points out, it is surprising to find a military historian like Sir Henry Hozier declaring that " spies have a dangerous task and not an honourable one.'' The truth seems to be that as regards the miHtary spy in time of war, popular opinion stands in need of revision. In the face of the instances quoted, it cannot be fairly said that the military spy is necessarily a man of dishonour. The spy and the revolutionary, in some respects, fall under the same category. If they succeed, well and good ; if they fail, they pay the inevitable penalty, and no mercy is shown them. Yet the revolutionary as well as the spy may be a person of blameless honour. As a matter of fact, the Germans them- selves — whose sense of honour no one will regard as being excessively nice — seem to recognise the distinction between the military spy and the wretched agents of espionage, of whom they have made abundant use, who in times of peace, work, and can only work, GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 125 by abusing the^^hospitality of the nation among whom they live, and by tempting men to betray their honour and their country's secrets. The Japanese, too, one of the proudest of nations, and with a code of honour as strict as any in the world, have recognised that there is nothing essentially dishonourable about the military spy. During the war with Russia, Mr. Douglas Story relates, they captured a Russian who was spying disguised as a Chinaman. They shot him, of course, but they afterwards sent into the Russian lines a message in which they hailed the spy as a brave man, and expressed the hope that the Russian army held many others equally brave. Perhaps the most remarkable spy^'case on record is that of Major Andre, which'^aroused the fiercest indignation during the American War of Independence. Andre, who was bom in London in 1751, joined the British Army in Canada, and became aide-de-camp to General Clinton. Benedict Arnold, an Ameri- can commandant, had undertaken to surrender to the British forces a fortress on the Hudson River, and Andre was sent by Clinton to make the necessary arrangements. On the night of September 20th, 1780, Arnold and Andre met at a place called Haverstraw, on the Hudson River. Then Andre changed his uniform for plain clothes, and attempted to pass through the American lines by means of a passport given him by 126 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIyAND Arnold in the name of John Anderson. As he was approaching the British Hnes, however, he was captured by a patrol of the enemy, who handed him over to the American military authorities. Washington at once convened a board of officers, who found Andre guilty of espionage, and declared that he ought to be put to death. Curiously enough, Andre himself did not protest against this sentence ; all that he asked was that he should be shot instead of suffering the ignominious death of hanging. This request, however, was refused, and, accordingly, he was hanged on October 2nd, 1780. The case created an uproar in England. The essence of spying is that the spy shall be caught while seeking information, and Andre was not thus caught. The Americans contended that so long as he was captured before he had returned to his own lines he was to be regarded as a spy, and, therefore, liable to condemnation. Many people in England, and elsewhere, regarded Andre as a martyr. George III. granted a pension to his mother, a baronetcy was conferred on his brother, and, in 1821, his remains were allowed to be exhumed, and were brought to England and buried in Westminster Abbey ! It is most important to recognise the distinction between spying, properly so called, and '' war treason." The inhabitants of an occupied territory do not owe any allegiance GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 127 to an invader, but they do owe him the duty of remaining quiet and abstaining from acts which might endanger his safety or success. They are subject to his martial law regula- tions, and, under certain circumstances, they may be guilty of war treason. War treason has been defined by the Germans as : — " The act of damaging or imperilling the enemy's power by deceit, or by the transmission of messages to the national army on the subject of the position, movements, plans, etc. , of the occupant, irrespective of whether the means by which the sender has come into the possession of the information be legitimate or illegitimate {e.g,, by espionage)." It is, of course, regarded as an act of perfidy when a person whose rights as a non- combatant have been regarded abuses his position to render aid to the national army. Non-combatants, save when the " levy in mass " has been put in force, have no right, it is considered, to meddle in any way with the operations of the contending armies. Bearers of despatches, whether military or civilian, are not spies so long as they work openly. During the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck contended that all who attempted to pass out of Paris by balloon were spies, and should be treated as such, and though those who were caught were not put to death, they were very harshly treated. He was, undoubtedly, wrong under international law as recognised at the present day. Since those times, the aeroplane has placed 128 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND in the hands of military commanders a powerful weapon, not only of espionage or scouting, but also of communicating informa- tion, and probably not even Bismarck, were he still alive, could contend that the use of aeroplanes could be regarded as bringing the airman within thef laws of espionage. And there is no difference in principle between the aeroplane and the balloon. Obviously, there can be none of the concealment which is necessary to establish spying. The invention of wireless telegraphy brought about a curious problem in espionage during the Russo-Japanese War. A steamer, fitted with a wireless installation, followed the movements of the rival fleets in the interests of one of the London papers. She was boarded by a Russian cruiser, and, as result, the Russian Government informed the neutral Powers that should any neutral vessel be found within the Russian maritime zone, having on board correspondents with apparatus of this kind — which, obviously, was not foreseen in the then existing Conven- tions — used for the purpose of transmitting information to the enemy, the correspondents would be treated as spies, and the vessels made prizes of war. That position is now untenable. Owing to the improvements made in wire- less telegraphy, a very similar situation might arise in a land war. It is possible, to-day, to carry in an ordinary motor-car a GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 129 wireless outfit capable of sending messages a very considerable distance ; indeed, there is good reason for believing that such an apparatus is actually being used by German agents for transmitting information from the east and north-east districts of England, to enemy submarines lurking in the North Sea. A rigorous search has been made for this mysterious car, which has been reported in various districts. Naturally, when the appara- tus is not in use it is concealed within the body of the car, which would then become, apparently, an ordinary touring vehicle, with nothing to distinguish it from hundreds of others passing freely along the roads. In this case there would be little doubt about the fate of the occupants of the car if they were caught. They would not be " spies " in the strict sense of the word, as their offence was not committed within the zone of the operations, but they would be guilty of '' war treason," and liable to the death penalty. This is a very real danger, and the offence is one that it would be extremely difficult to detect. The popular idea of a wireless plant, gained no doubt from the enormous '' aerials " of the high-power stations sending messages thousands of miles, is that wireless telegraphy is something that cannot be carried on without employing huge plant that it would be impossible to conceal. Now I can claim to know something of 130 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND wireless telegraphy — I have experimented for some years — and I can say, at once, that this is an exceedingly dangerous fallacy. In recent years very great improvements have been made in both transmitters and receivers, and to-day it is quite possible to establish in almost any house, a small, but powerftd wireless plant, which would be utterly invisible from outside, but quite capable of sending messages from any spot near the coast to enemy vessels, such as submarines, lying a few miles away. Of secret installations there are, no doubt, to-day, many in various parts of the country. Several stations have, indeed, been discovered. The reason aliens were not allowed to possess a telephone was regarded as curious by some people. But it was because telephone-wires, when properly insulated and arranged, make quite a good '' aerial.'' Further, in any barn or long attic, aerial wires can be strung across, and give excellent results. The spy does not need spidery wires upon masts high above his house-top, or in his garden. If his instru- ments are sufficiently deHcate, and are con- nected with the underground gas-pipe, or even to an ordinary wire-mattress, he will be able to receive messages from any of the high-power stations within a radius of, say, five hundred miles, while from a wire strung inside a disused factory-chimney, and thereby hidden, a wireless message can be despatched a couple of hundred miles. Therefore the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 131 peril of all this will at once be realised, for any spy who knows sufficient to fit up a wireless station inside his own house, and is acquainted with the latest developments of the science, need not use lamp-signalHng at night, or pigeons, or any other antiquated modes of communication. Indeed, he can flash at night a code-message direct to Norddeich or any other place on the German coast, and receive back his answer in a few moments, no one being able to detect, until after long search and inquiry, whence the mysterious buzz has emanated. It ought to be said, however, that it is problematical how long such a fixed station, estabUshed say in Yorkshire, could be worked without detection, because its messages must — sooner or later — ^be picked up by some of our own Post Office or naval operators. The messages would be in cipher, of course, but the important thing would be to know that such a plant was being used. An expert wireless-operator, with a newly-invented in- strument called a " direction-finder,'' can make a very good guess at the distance of the point of origin of any message he receives, and once the proper authorities were on the track of a secret wireless station, the work of hunting it down would be only a matter of time and trouble. Such a case was reported a few weeks ago from the Pacific coast, where a wireless station estab- lished in the centre of a remote district was 132 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND giving the Germans valuable help. It was tracked down and located, and it is said that a similar station was found in the centre of Rome, and others in Paris and Antwerp. We might be equally successful here, but, in the meantime, it is more than Hkely that a good deal of damage might have been done. The case of a wireless installation used for a motor-car, however, presents much more difficulty of detection. We might know perfectly well that it was being used, and yet be unable to locate it on account of its mobility. It is practically certain that it would never be used twice from the same spot ; indeed, it might operate along a line running a couple of hundred miles north and south, and still convey its messages to the enemy vessels. In such a case as this, we can only rely upon vigilance and good luck to turn the trick in our favour. In my view, the Admiralty took an ex- tremely unwise step when, at the beginning of the war, they closed all the private wireless stations in England. There are a great many of these stations — far more than the general public realises — and the majority of them were being worked by men whose loyalty and discretion stood absolutely above sus- picion. These installations — free from the heavy load of business thrown upon the Government coast stations — are quite capable of doing excellent work in constantly '' Hsten- ing " for illicit stations which might be in the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 133 hands of German spies for the purpose of giving information respecting our naval movements. The value of these small stations as a means of detecting hostile messages has been entirely under-estimated by the Admir- alty, who seem to consider the risk of English- men being either traitors or fools more than outweighs the possibility of detecting secret wireless in the hands of our enemies. I have dwelt upon this matter at some length, because I am absolutely convinced of the very serious danger to which we are exposed from the use of wireless installations, small, but capable of working over any distance up to, say, one hundred miles — and even less would be amply sufficient — by German spies in Great Britain at the present moment. We now know quite enough of German methods to be aware that our enemy's spies are not only singularly daring, but singularly resourceful. I know what a small, compact, portable station can do in skilled hands, and I am strongly- of opinion that the risks we are running in this respect are not sufficiently appreciated — perhaps are not understood — by the authorities. Even to-day, in spite of the evidence that I and others have been able to bring forward for some years, and in spite even of numerous convic- tions during the past few months, there is too much of a tendency on the part of the Govern- ment to try to ** save its face '' by declaring 134 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND that the spy peril is enormously exaggerated. No doubt they will endeavour to refute my arguments in these pages. They declared, for so long, that there were no German spies in England, that even to-day they are reluctant to take the drastic steps which the situation urgently demands. On no other supposition can we explain the unparalleled liberty accorded to thousands of Germans, whether naturalised or not, who are still permitted to live and move so freely among us. Some, indeed, have been interned, and afterwards released. Returning to the legal position of spies (after a digression perhaps not without its uses), it should be noted that the Hague regulations distinguish between a member of the armed forces and a private citizen. The soldier spy who has rejoined the army cannot, afterwards, be punished for his act of espionage. The civihan who acts as a sp3^ enjoys, however, no such privilege. He has no business to meddle with military affairs, and, should he be captured at any time, he is liable to pay the penalty of his former deeds. Similarly, to harbour a spy is also a criminal offence. A person found guilty of espionage may either be hanged or shot ; nowadays, the usual punishment is shooting, though the American code still prescribes hanging. In earlier times, also, he was Hable to be executed on the spot, without formahty of any kind. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 135 To-day, he must first be tried by court- martial in accordance with the estabhshed rules of martial law in the country in which the offence was committed. , The position of civilians in an invaded territory who give or transmit to their own side information respecting the enemy's movements is not without interest to us now that threats of a German invasion are so freely indulged in by the Press of Germany, and preparations to defeat such an attack are being actively made by our own military authorities. There can be no doubt that if a resident of an occupied territory gives such information, he is guilty either of spying, or of a hostile act against the invader, amounting to war treason, and equally punishable by death. The '' American Instructions '' are very emphatic on this point. They say : — " If a citizen or subject of a country or place invaded or conquered gives information to his own Government from which he is separated by the hostile army or to the army of his Government he is a war traitor and death is the penalty of his offence." Thus, a Belgian resident in Brussels, during the German occupation, found sending infor- mation to the Belgian authorities in France, would be shot out of hand by the Germans, and they would be within their clear rights in shooting him. 136 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND A more doubtful case would be that of an inhabitant of a district not yet occupied, who entered the war zone, obtained information, and, having sent it to his Government, returned home, only to be captured later when the enemy occupied the district. The view is generally held, though the Convention came to no very clear decision, that in such a case he could not be punished, as he was not supposed to belong to an occupied territory. Such a man owes no duty to the enemy, as in the case of an occupied territory, and once he has completed his mission, he is free. It should be noted that the nationality of a spy is not material ; neutrals found guilty may be punished as though they were the enemy subjects. Many Chinese who spied for the Russians during the Russo- Japanese War were executed b}^ the Japanese. One of them was a Chinese officer, and the Government of China demanded an explana- tion. The Japanese reply was quite un- equivocal, and insisted on the right to punish spies, no matter of what nationality. As I have said, all nations spy in the interests of national self-preservation. It is not the fact of German espionage that has roused the indignation of the civilised world against her. We have no feelings even of resentment against such men as Carl Lody, though, of course, we are entitled to protect ourselves against them. They owe us nothing. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIyAND 137 and they are clearly doing their duty in trying to help their country. What has aroused anti-German feelings — which are not likely to die out for many years — is the baseness of the German method : systematic ** plant- ing '* of agents who, for years, have posed as the friends of those among whom they lived, yet have not hesitated to betray them in the first shock of war. Thousands of paid German spies have deliberately become naturalised Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Belgians, as a mere cloak for their efforts to betray the country of their adoption. Hun- dreds of thousands of Germans accepted for years as friends in this country, bearers even of British honours, have abused our hospitality, and added the vilest treachery to the blackest ingratitude. While posing as our friends, they have worked their best for our undoing, and — worse still — they have suborned and made traitors of poor men, to whom the lure of gold of this kind is simply that it is *' not cricket," and for the false friend, not for the open enemy, the British people reserve their bitterest scorn and con- tempt. CHAPTER IX A REMARKABLE SPY Of the many cases of espionage which have come before the British pubHc recently, surely none exceeds in interest and importance that of Carl Hans Lody, who, after trial by court- martial, was shot in the Tower of London early in November. Lody was the first secret- service agent shot in England after the out- break of war, and the first person executed in the Tower since the middle of the eighteenth century. Lody, beyond all question, was a very remarkable man. Before going into the details of the charge against him, it is well worth while to recall some of the leading features of his career. Born in Berlin, he was only thirty-five, yet he had seen enough of life and the world to have satisfied many men of double his age. There is hardly a ccjrner of the civilised world into which he had not travelled. He had been much in America, and it was a consider- able help to him, in his work as a secret- service agent, that he spoke English with a decidedly American accent. This, no doubt, explains the fact — of which more presently — GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 139 that he posed as an American, and used an American passport, which really belonged to a certain Mr. Charles A. Inglis. It was as Mr. Charles A. Inglis that Lody arrived in England early in August. He knew England and Scotland well, and he is believed to have been in this country once or twice earlier in the year. Originally, he served in the German Navy ; after he left he became a steward on the liner '' Hamburg.'' In the meantime he married a very handsome American woman, to whom, apparently, though the marriage did not turn out very happily, he was very deeply attached. When the Hamburg- Amerika lyine estab- lished a series of personally conducted tours from Berlin, lyody secured an appointment to take charge of a party of rich Americans who were going round the world. He made a similar tour in 1913 and in the summer of 1914, and when the American medical societies held an International Conference in London, lyody was one of the guides who helped to show them round England. None of the Americans, it may be mentioned, ever doubted that he belonged to their country. It was in August, as I have said, that lyody came to England on the mission that led him to his death. He travelled as Mr. Inglis, though to an American acquaintance who chanced to meet him he was still lyody. It ;was some weeks before the attention of the Confidential Department was drawn to him, and then began a game of hide-and- 140 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIyAND seek, which was not without a humorous side. From August till the middle of September, I/)dy was in Edinburgh, a district prohibited to enemy aliens, though not, of course, to an American. Thence he sent, to Stockholm, a telegram which aroused suspicion. On September 7th he was followed from the neighbourhood of Rosylh, and with magni- ficent '* bluff '' he went direct to the police and complained. So well did he play the part of an injured and innocent American citizen, that the police actually apologised to him. He slipped away and, for a time, all trace of him was lost. Then he went to London and began an examination of the steps that had been taken for the protection of the principal buildings. Again the Intelligence Department got on his track, and from that moment his doom was sealed. No doubt he thought he had shaken off all suspicion, but he was soon to be un- deceived. After a visit to Scotland about the end of September, lyody went to Liverpool, no doubt to pick up all he could about the Mersey defences, and then over to Ireland in the guise of an American tourist on a visit to Elillarney. But the poUce had their eye on him all the time, and he was arrested and detained until the arrival of Inspector Ward of Scotland Yard. His trial and conviction followed. The public will never know the full extent GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 14 1 of lyody's doings as a spy, but it is beyond question that he was a most daring and dangerous man. The reports he made have not yet been published, but they were of such a character that, in the interests of the State, much of the evidence was taken in camera, and those who have been privileged to read them declare that, in their keen observation and clear expression, they are among the most remarkable documents that have ever come into the possession of the War Office. The Confidential Department did its work well, and it is worth noting here that after grave suspicion fell upon Lody, he was so closely shadowed that none of his reports left the country, and they were produced in evidence at the trial. lyody's task was to travel about England and to send to Germany news about our naval movements, about our losses and the steps that were being taken to repair them. One message he tried to send from Edinburgh read : — " Must cancel. Johnson very ill last four days. Shall leave shortly." Innocent enough ! But to Berlin, as Lody admitted at his trial, it meant that the British Fleet, in four days, would be leaving the Firth of Forth. What, we may well wonder, was to be cancelled ! There was a dramatic scene in the ancient Guildhall when the court-martial assembled to try Ivody for his life — a scene strangely unfamiliar in a country which, for a genera- 142 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND tion, has had little experience of miUtary trials. The court was composed of Major- General I^ord Che^^esmore as President, and eight officers in uniform. In the dock stood Lody, guarded by two khaki-clad soldiers with bayonets fixed. The following were the charges on which Lody was accused : — The accused, Carl Hans Lody, alias Charles A. Inglis, an enemy civilian, is charged — first charge — with committing a war crime, that is to say, war treason, against Great Britain, in that he at Edin- burgh, on or about September 27, 1914, attempted to convey to a belligerent enemy of Great Britain — namely to Germany — information calculated to be useful to that enemy by sending a letter headed Edinburgh 27/9/14, and signed Nazi, addressed to one Karl J. Stammer, BerUn, which contained information with regard to the defence and prepara- tions for war of Great Britain. The second charge is that of committing a war crime in that he on or about the 30th of September attempted to convey to a beUigerent enemy of Great Britain — namely to . Germany; — information calculated to be useful to that enemy, by sending a letter, headed Dublin and signed Nazi, and addressed to Karl J. Stammer, which contained information with regard to the defences and preparations for war of Great Britain. lyody's movements were very clearly traced at the trial by Mr. Bodkin, who prosecuted for the Crown. It was shown, by the vise on the American passport he was using, that he had been in Berlin as recently as August 4th. Another document found on him proved that he was in Bergen, in Norway, on August 20th. In all his movements he passed as GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 143 Charles A. Inglis. It is not necessary to follow him in detail, but it may be mentioned that apparently he reported both to a man named Burchard, at Stockholm, and also to Stammer at BerUn. There were found in his notebook not only a copy of the *' Johnson'' telegram, but also particulars of British losses in battle and in the naval fight in the North Sea, a list of German cruisers and German ships sunk up to date, and also copies of four other communications to Burchard. Mr. Bodkin made it clear that, through the Post Office officials, certain letters to and from persons abroad had been examined and copied, and in some cases delivered ; since August 4th letters for Norway and Sweden posted in any part of the United Kingdom were sent to London and there examined. Several of these were to and from the prisoner. The main part of the evidence against lyody was taken in camera and has never been made public, but that it was over- whelming there can be no doubt ; indeed, Lody himself admitted that he had had a fair trial, and was quite justly dealt with. It was, however, mentioned that his letters contained reports on such places as Queens- ferry, near the naval base at Rosyth, and various other places round the coast. There was a very remarkable incident when Lody himself gave evidence, an incident which gives us a good deal of insight into the real character of this remarkable spy. 144 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND Having admitted that his name was on the German Navy lyist, he said that when he went to Berhn at the end of July he reported himself to " a certain department/* making a request that he should not be sent on active service as he was an invaUd, having undergone a serious operation some years before and being unfit to do any fighting. Narrating events in Berlin, lyody said, " A proposition was put before me by a certain person/* '' Are you wilHng," counsel asked him, ** to give the name of that person ? '* Then for the first time body's iron nerve broke down. He burst into heavy sobs, and in a voice almost choked with emotion, replied : '* I have pledged my word of honour not to give that name, and I cannot do it. Although names have been discovered in my documents, I do feel that I have not broken my word of honour.*' '* Are you unwilling,'* counsel asked, '' to tell us the position in Ufe that person occupies ? ** Again Lody hesitated ; then he added quietly that the person was a superior naval officer. ** I was summoned to see him,** he said ; " and I had three or four interviews with him.** Then came a question which provoked a very remarkable reply. '' Are you willing,*' asked counsel, '' to tell the court what took place at those interviews with your superior officer ? ** *' I am willing to tell the court,'* said Lody. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 145 " And I am willing not to conceal anything, but I should like it not to be in public, as I shall certainly refer to very essential and important affairs." lyody was then asked to give the " principal instruction '' that he received, and he did so readily. He was to remain in England until the first engagement had taken place between the two Powers, and send information as regards the actual losses of the British Fleet. Then he was at liberty to go on to New York ; he had previously asked for permission to do so. He was also told to get all the informa- tion he could with regard to the movements of the Fleet, and what was going on in England, but was specially warned not to go and " spy round," but to see as much as every traveller could see. lyody added that he was very reluctant to undertake this work, as he felt he was not well fitted for it. He pointed this out, he said. It was put to him that pressure was applied to him to induce him to undertake the mission, to which he replied : '' There was no pressure, but there is certainly an understanding. If they make a suggestion you feel obhged to obey. I have never been a coward in my life, and I certainly won't be a shirker." lyct us give credit where credit is due — even in espionage. I think everyone will admit that, whatever view we may take of this spy's offence — and views on the subject of espionage will always vary widely — I^ody 146 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND behaved as a brave man. He was, in the first place, absolutely loyal to his chiefs ; there was about him nothing of the craven wretch as willing to sacrifice his own country as any other if he could hope by so doing to win any favour for himself. Nor would he even speak in open Court of matters which, as he thought, might have been prejudicial to us. One cannot but recognise his chivalry. It is not often that the man in the dock deserves all his counsel says about him, but lyody was an exception, and the eloquent plea on his behalf made by Mr. George ElHott, K.C., who defended him, deserves to be remembered, not only for its references to lyody, but as a tribute to British justice, which placed at the service of a dangerous adversary the skill of one of the most brilliant members of the English Bar. Whatever his fate might be, said Mr. Elliott, he hoped the accused would remember to the last hour of his existence that he had received from the country whose interests he came to betray a trial which, for fairness, was unrivalled in history. He said, quite frankly, that he came to this country in the service of his own — as a German actuated by patriotic German motives. He had told the Court all that he could tell, refusing to speak only where it clashed with his word of honour as an ofiicer and a gentleman. He was not a man who had sold his country for gold, and he had not attempted to corrupt a single British subject or ofiicial. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 147 '' I plead for him/' said Mr. Elliott, ad- mitting that a conviction was unavoidable, but asking the Court whether they could not find some extenuating circumstances, " not as a miserable coward, or as a fear-stricken wretch, but as a man bom of a land to which he is true, whose histor}^ and traditions he cherishes. His own grandfather was a great soldier who held a fortress against Napoleon, and it is in that spirit he wishes to stand before you here to-day. He was ready to offer himself on the altar of his country. I am not here to cringe for mercy ; my client is not ashamed of anything he has done. Many a man would do for England what he did for Germany — may, in fact, be now doing it. Whatever his fate, he will meet it bravely like a man.'' The verdict, as usual in the case of a court-martial, was not announced until some days later, when an official statement told us that Lody had been shot. He maintained his courage to the end, and died without a tremor. Before he died he left a letter in which he admitted he had had a fair trial, and expressed appreciation of the fact that he had been treated, not as a spy, but as an officer. Now we come to the ugliest and darkest side of the Lody case. It will be remembered that Lody was able to get about by the aid of an American passport issued in the name of Charles A. IngHs. It was thought, at first, that this was merely a passport obtained # 148 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND either by forgery or by false pretences ; as a matter of fact it was a perfectly genuine document, but lyody had no right to it. How it came into his possession shows the depth of degradation to which the German General Staff are prepared to descend. Mr. IngUs, it was ascertained after the trial, was a bona fide American traveller holding a genuine passport. He left his passport with the American Embassy in Berlin for registration with the German Foreign Office, or some other department. The Embassy sent it in for registration and it was never returned. Nor was it ever heard of again until it turned up in the possession of Carl lyody — a spy in Great Britain ! The German explanation to the American Embassy was that the passport had been mislaid. The same fate, it is said, has befallen no fewer than two hundred United States and British passports in Germany, and the corol- lary of this astounding announcement is that at the present moment there may be two hundred German agents wandering about equipped with British and American passports which are perfectly genuine, and not in the least likely to be suspected. The stealing of these passports by the German authorities has been the subject of an official British communication, so that there can be no doubt about the fact, whether the exact number had been stated or not. *' It has come to the notice of the Foreign Secretary,*' says the British statement, *' that GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIvAND 149 some passports belonging to British subjects leaving Germany have been retained by the German authorities. Such cases should be reported to the Foreign Office." I say without hesitation that I do not believe any other country on the face of the globe would descend to such methods as this. I say, moreover, that no nation capable of such conduct can be regarded as possessing a shred of public honour. It is comparable only to the white flag treachery, or the mounting of machine guns in Red Cross ambulances, which is a feature of German warfare, to the murder by bombs of non- combatants in districts where there cannot be any soldiers, to the sowing of mines on the high seas, to the making of shields for soldiers out of the bodies of miserable civiHans, to the slaughter of women and children at lyouvain and Aerschot. What will the civilised communities of the world have to say in the future to Germans convicted out of their own mouths of disregarding every law of God and man that may operate to their dis- advantage ? But even out of the theft of the passports — no doubt regarded by them as an excellent stroke of '' kultur '' — the Germans are not unlikely to reap trouble. The United States is not a country to be played with, and in this passport trick there lie the elements of serious trouble. Americans will not be Hkely to He down quietly while their passports are used for espionage, and it is more 150 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND than likely that the Germans have stirred up a hornets' nest about their ears. In the meantime, it is reported from Washington that the Government has instructed the Embassy in Berhn to sift the lyody-Inglis incident to the very bottom. That incident, too, has brought about much more stringent rules with regard to passports. Henceforth no American or British passport will be recognised as valid which does not bear the certified photograph of its rightful owner, and extra photographs for registration pur- poses will have to be lodged with the Embassy or Consulate by which the passport is issued. In the meantime we may be quite sure that American passports in I^ondon will be the subject of very special attention. What diplomatic action the United States may take in the matter it is impossible to say, but we can be fairly sure that such a proceeding as the stealing of neutral passports and using them for the purposes of spying in Great Britain will hardly be allowed to pass without very serious protest. The lyody case has had one good effect in bringing home to a pubHc, which is, alas ! too liable to be careless in such matters, the reahty of the German spy-peril in the country. The public had been so consistently deluded in this matter by those who were perfectly aware of the real facts of German espionage that it was far too much inclined to look upon everyone who insisted that there was a very real and very urgent spy danger as a GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 151 mere alarmist. It knows better now I Any- one who glances at the columns of the daily Press must be aware that public opinion is slowly awakening to the real urgency of the question, and, though I and others have been bitterly disappointed that our warnings have, to a great extent, gone unheeded, I am even now not without hope that we shall yet see the pubHc insist that adequate steps shall be taken for our national safety in this respect. It is true we may offend Germany by the drastic action the position demands. We may even, it is true, make the lot of Englishmen still, unhappily, in Germany, harder and more disagreeable. We shall regret either necessity. But the safety of the country has to come first. Germany has never shown the slightest regard for our feelings, and I am sure that those of our countrymen who are prisoners in Germany, miUtary or civil, would cheerfully suffer any conceivable hardship rather than that the safety of our beloved Empire should be jeopardised in the hope of making better terms for them. To think otherwise would be to assume that patriotism had entirely departed from us. CHAPTER X SOMB RECENT CASES We can respect Lody ; we can have no other feelings but the bitterest scorn and contempt for such traitorous miscreants as the ex-naval gunner, Charles Parrott, who, early in 1913, was sentenced to four years* penal servitude, under the Official Secrets Act of 1911, for selling official secrets likely to be useful to the enemy. The class of traitor to which Parrott belongs represents the spy in his very lowest and most contemptible guise. About these wretched agents among us there is no redeem- ing feature. Patriotism is, to them, a word of no meaning ; to their country they have no attachment : their one idea is to make money, and to do this they are wiUing to risk the very existence of the nation to which they belong. Show them gold, and there is no work on earth too dirty for them to under- take ! And we have, I fear, many such men in our public services. It is men of this stamp who have made the very name of *' spy '* a by- word in all countries and all times — not the men who risk their lives in order to gain an advantage for the cause GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 153 to which they are attached by every sacred obligation of honour. Parrott, up to August, 1912, was a gunner attached to H.M.S. '' Pembroke '' at Sheer- ness. He was a warrant officer, and as such would have opportunities of obtaining in- formation which would be denied to those of lower rank. The charge against him was, of course, not one of spying, since the offence was not committed in time of war. It was couched in the following terms : — That he being a British officer did feloniously communicate at Ostend to a person unknown certain information in regard to the arms, arma- ments, dispositions and movements of ships and men of His Majesty's Navy which was calculated, or intended to be, or might be useful to an enemy. In considering Parrott' s case we have to remember that he was an EngUshman, in the service of the Crown in the Navy, and a British officer. He was in a position of responsibility, and his pay, with allowances, would work out at about £260 a year, so that he had not even the excuse of poverty to urge in mitigation of his horrible offence. He had been in the Navy for a number of years, and he was regarded as an efficient and trustworthy officer, so that he was able to become acquainted with matters which it was his obvious duty to guard with the most jealous care. He had been associated with the building of the " Agamemnon '' on the Clyde, so that he was intimately ac- quainted with all those particulars of guns 154 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGIyAND and armaments which, in the event of war, it would be of the utmost interest to an enemy to know. He knew, in fact, of con- fidential matters of the utmost importance. Parrott, on July 11th, 1912, asked for and obtained leave of absence, on the plea that he wanted to go to Devonport. On the same day he sent a telegram, not from Sheerness, where he lived, but from Sitting- bourne, to " Richard Dinger,'' at an address in BerUn, saying, " Coming eight o'clock Saturday, Seymour." The same day he left Sheerness by train. A lady travelled with him as far as Sittingbourne, and then he went on alone to Dover. Apparently he had already become an object of suspicion, for on the Admiralty Pier at Dover he was questioned by Detective- Inspector Grey. He was searched, and on him was found a piece of torn paper on which were the words : ** When there is a chance," '* Coming over on Saturday of that same week," *' You telegraph probably Saturday, then I make all my arrangements to leave the moment I get order." On the other side of the paper were the words, '' Richard Dinger, Esq.," and '' With much love, yours, R." Parrott' s explanation of all this was that he had been writing to a woman in the name of another man, and that he was going to meet her at Ostend. In his pocket was found a naval signal-form, and in answer to the Inspector he admitted that he was a naval GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 155 officer, and asked that his wife should not be told about the " lady." The Inspector decided to let him go, but kept the paper. Parrott evidently thought that the detective had no suspicion as to the real motive of his visit to Ostend, or he would surely have taken the alarm. He crossed, however, to Ostend, carefully shadowed all the time by no less acute an observer than ex-Inspector Melville of Scotland Yard. When the boat arrived at Ostend, Parrott went through the station, and was joined by another man. There was no greeting, no welcome, no hand- shaking, not a sign of recognition ; the other man simply sidled up alongside Parrott and they went off together. Mr. Melville formed the opinion that the man was a foreigner, and probably a German. They went about together for a time and then Parrott returned to Dover. An inquiry followed, and ultimately Par- rott' s name was removed from the Navy Irist. The case against him was not, however, complete, and it was not until October that the police were able to lay him by the heels. It was then found that he was having letters addressed to him in the name of Couch delivered at a tobacconist's shop at Chelsea. Five or six letters came to him, and on November 16th two police officers went to the shop, where another letter had arrived. During the day Parrott called, the letter was given to him, and he was at once arrested. 150 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND In his presence the letter was opened. Inside were two £5 Bank of England notes — which, it was afterwards shown, had been in circulation in Germany — and a letter bearing the postmark '' London, E./' which was as follows : — Dear Mr. Couch, — I am very much obliged to you for your prompt reply to my last letter. Now I beg to place in your hands some questions in addition to my last letter. Have the goodness to leave as soon as possible for Firth of Forth, ascertaining about the following : — Which parts of the Fleet are in or off the Forth since November 5. Only the vessels of the First and Eighth Destroyer Flotilla, or which other men-of-war of any kind else ? Where is the Second Destroyer Flotilla now? Have there been mobiHsing tests of the Flotillas and coast defences in the Firth of Forth ? What are the Flotillas doing or proposing now ? What number of Royal Fleet Reserve Class A are called in now for the yearly exercise ? Where do they exercise ? Are any of these men kept longer than a fortnight ? I think it will be necessary to stay some days at Firth of Forth for gathering information about those questions. I should be much obliged if I could be informed as soon as you have got satisfying state- ments about one or several of these points. Do not wait to answer until you have found out all I wish to know. Enclosed £10 as travel expenses for the last and this journey. Please tell me in the next letter after ha\Ting returned to London your expenses that I can hand you the balance if the £10 should not do it. I beg you to keep yourself ready, if possible also in the near future, to run over immediately to any place as soon as rumours as to extraordinary preparations of material and personal are running. In such a case please do not wait until you have received an order from me, but leave on your own GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 157 accord, and at the same time send your address and make your doings known to me with particulars of the reason. — Yours truly, Richard. I have given this letter in full for several reasons, Parrott was not definitely charged with giving information to Germany, but the letter is obviously the work of a German, and, moreover, a German who was working in London — for it was posted in the Eastern district ! It suggests, moreover, that the Germans suspected that some naval move- ments were on foot, and were willing to pay handsomely to get the news ; it will be noted that Parrott was practically given carte blanche to spend what he Uked without waiting for authority from his master. A sub- sequent examination of his banking account showed that he had paid in about fourteen £5 notes, some of which had been in circu- lation in Germany. He had also been in Hamburg and Flushing, two centres of German espionage. Parrott' s own explanation of the affair was that he met a woman in a London music hall and went over to Ostend to see her. While he was there he failed to meet the woman, but a man came up to him and asked him if he was expecting to meet anyone. He replied that he expected to meet a lady, and the man then professed to know about her, and said she was unable to come. After that he received a letter from the man he met at Ostend. At that time he had been dismissed from the Service, and the letter 158 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND expressed the concern of the writer, and the lady had offered to help him. He replied asking what assistance the}^ could give, and had a letter asking him to go to Hamburg. He went and met the man, who said he was a newspaper correspondent, and asked him to write an article once a week dealing with naval matters — a story curiously like that told by the spy Schulz. He afterwards received a letter from *' Richard " outHning the kind of article required. The man said : *' Let me know the progress of warships building, ships launched, ships laid down, and the movements of ships. Send me a specimen article deaHng with the subject." He then bought a copy of a naval paper and from it wrote an article, which he sent. Then Parrott described how he got a letter from the lady asking him to go to Rotterdam to see her. This he did, hoping, as he said, *' to induce her to come to England, as he wished to raise the question why he was dismissed from the Service." Not unnaturally the lady declined to come, but Parrott admitted that she told a man who was with her to pay his expenses, and then gave him 100 francs. '' I have little doubt but that you were entrapped by a woman," said Mr. Justice Darling, in sending Parrott to four years' penal servitude. ** You have been long under suspicion," his Lordship added; '' I do not believe for a moment it was a first offence." GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 159 Even the Liberal journals which had long insisted that there were no German spies in England thought this sentence was in- adequate. " It will strike most people," said the Daily Chronicle, '' as not erring on the side of over-severity." The case was a flagrant abuse of a most sacred trust, and deserved all the punishment the law allowed ; as a matter of fact, it deserved a good deal more, and Parrott was more than lucky that he was on trial, not in Germany, but in England. The case of Karl Gustav Ernst is of very great interest, not only as revealing some of the methods of the Kaiser's '* master-spy," the man Steinhauer, but also as showing the utter futility of rel3dng on '' naturalisation " of Germans to protect us against spying. We are constantly told that it is impossible for us to take steps against '' naturalised " Germans, as we have solemnly undertaken to treat them in aU respects as Englishmen, and we have even *' naturalised " many Germans since the outbreak of war. The Ernst case ought to have been sufficient warning of the danger arising from the naturalised alien, but apparently there is no limit to the innocent trustfulness of our sleepy Home Office. How long it will be before we learn that a German no more changes his nature by adopting naturalisation than an ass does if he clothes himself in a lion's skin I cannot say ; I only hope it will not be brought home to us by some terrible catastrophe 160 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND which will seriously affect our fighting power. Ernst, be it remembered, was not even naturalised ; he claimed to have been born in England, and posed as an Englishman. Yet he was a spy ; how much more, then, have we reason to suspect the recently '' naturalised alien " whose national sym- pathies have not been blunted by birth and long residence in this country ? The leopard cannot change his spots, and '* once a German, always a German," is the only safe rule for us in the present crisis. Ernst, who was a hairdresser in the Cale- donian Road, London, had been for sixteen years in business there. His function was to act as a sort of *' post-office " for Steinhauer of Potsdam, by whom letters were sent to him for distribution throughout England. In order to minimise risks of detection, these letters were posted in various parts of London. Ernst, of course, besides acting as '' post- office," made inquiries on his own account, and did some of the work of getting into touch with other agents. He was paid all out-of-pocket expenses and a kind of retaining fee, first of £1 a month, and then, when he pointed out that the business was both risky and important, £1 10s. a month. Ernst first came under suspicion of the Nameless Department as long ago as Octo- ber, 1911, and we ought to admit with cheerful gratitude that he was a very valuable ally to us ! From the very commencement the authorities were, I happen to know, ahve GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 161 to what was going on, and the closest observa- tion was kept on the hairdresser's shop. All letters were opened by the postal authorities, their contents were carefully copied, and a most useful accumulation of information thus came into the hands of the astute director of the Department. It was not specifically stated that Parrott was detected in this way, but as letters were sent to him by Ernst we may well assume that by such means the authorities were put on his track. One of the most useful pieces of information picked up was a list of names and addresses of persons to whom letters from Germany were sent for distribution, and who were 3pies at Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Rosyth, and other places. An amusing feature of the case was that after all these letters had been carefully examined and copied by the Post Office they were delivered in the ordinary course with only a very shght delay, and thus the suspicions of the spies, if indeed they entertained any, were most effectually put to sleep. The Nameless Department was not quite ~the fool the Germans had some excuse for thinking it! An important discovery made early in the case was the nom de guerre of Steinhauer of Potsdam. He had at that time become '^Mrs. Reimers.^' '^ Mr. J. Walters, c/o }C. G. Ernst " was soon found to be Ernst himself, who had long before suggested the adoption of that name to avoid suspicion. 162 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND It will illustrate the thoroughness of German methods to mention that most of the letters sent to Ernst were written on English paper, so that when he posted them there would be nothing to call special attention to them. One of the letters from Steinhauer read in court was a request for English paper and envelopes, which Ernst duly forwarded as *' samples." Many of the letters intercepted by the Post Office contained money, mostly in the shape of bank-notes. The work that Ernst was doing was sufficiently important to justify a visit from the redoubtable Steinhauer himself, as we learn from Ernst's own statement. During the time he was in custody Ernst made a statement to a detective in which he said : — I am sorry I was introduced into this business. Kronauer introduced me. I thought it was only a private inquiry business. I have only seen Steinhauer once. That was just before Christmas in 1911. He came to my shop on a Sunday morning. My shop was open and I had several customers there. He said to me, " Are you Mr. Ernst ? " and I said, " Yes." He said, " Do you know me ? " I said, " No." He said, " You have heard of me, I am Steinhauer. I see you are busy now. I want to have a quiet chat with you. I will come back after the shop is closed. What time do you close ? " j I said, ** Twelve o'clock." 1 He said, " AU right, I will come back after that," and went away. He returned later and came into my parlour, where we sat down and had a long talk." This statement is exceedingly interesting, GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 163 as we know that Steinhauer, as described in another chapter, was in London about this time, when he actually went to Buckingham Palace as a member of the Kaiser's suite. That he should be able to spare time to visit a man in Ernst's position shows what work the latter was doing, and also throws a good deal of light on the class of agent most useful to the Germans — the '' small " man, whose insignificant position does so much to guard him against suspicion. In one of his letters Ernst represented himself as '* a zealous stamp collector," of course to explain, in the event of detection, the constant remittances he w^as receiving from Germany. This letter, addressed to '' Miss Reimers," ran : — Dear Mr. Steinhauer, — Best thanks for the 100 marks, which were handed to me mid-day to-day. If you think it right you can in future send my advance direct to me without having recourse to a third person — namely, in the following way. I am a zealous stamp collector. Many of my customers and also my assistants know this. On the occasion of the next remittance copy the following letter : — " Dear Mr. Ernst, — ^Your last parcel of stamps arrived just in time to be included in last month's sale. Messrs. Kurt Moeser and also Koehler, the Berlin stamp auctioneers, are realising good prices at their sales. I have enclosed 100 marks on account, and will forward balance later. A receipt for the enclosed by return will oblige." I have sent you last Sunday's paper. What I can see from the case Henschel will go over to the British Secret Service just as the doctor from Glasgow has done. It has also occurred to me that 164 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND Henschel's wife's maiden name was Miss Riley, and that one of Scotland Yard's Special Service Inspectors, who had the case in hand, was also called Riley. In conclusion, many greetings. — I remain, yours, J. Wai^ of a close character will be Hkely, if not practically certain, to reveal the deception of which he has been guilty. It is to be hoped on every ground that the t08 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND new law will be rigorously enforced. I hold very strongly — and recent cases have justified my belief — that the naturalised alien is among our most dangerous enemies. For this reason, if for no other, the acquisition of British nationaHty should be made as difficult as possible in order to protect our country against hordes of subjects whom we do not want and who, if the truth were told, would be found to have but the most shadowy claim to the honour they seek. But, as the Globe has well described it, the Act is, at best, only a piece of belated legislation. It is to be regretted that the Government could not have seen their way to issue a proclamation postponing its operation, so that ParHament could have some further opportunity of discussing it before it is treated as settling the extremely difficult and com- plicated questions which are inherent in the subject, questions which have gained a new meaning in the last few months. It would be satisfactory, for instance, to investigate the very curious problems raised by the Third Section. Under this, certain disqualifications which the Act of Settlement imposed upon naturalised aliens are again made inoperative except as against aliens. Under the Act of Settlement naturalised aliens were prohibited from becoming members of the Privy Council, or of either House of Parliament, and from holding any office or place of trust, *' either civil or military.'' It is notorious that naturalised aliens have sat on both sides of GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 20& the House of Commons, are actually members of the Privy Council, and have occupied places of the most intimate trust in civil and military affairs. It is surely time we reverted to the older methods. No naturalised aUen should be appointed a Privy Councillor. The whole Act is therefore belated and incomplete. It does not, so far as one can understand it, provide for the one thing really necessary — that the individual seeking naturalisation in this country should divest himself altogether of any allegiance to the Sovereignty under which he was born. Whether he can do so, or not, is his affair. Germany, by her new Citizenship Law, as the journal quoted has pointed out, has devised methods obviously designed to dis- guise the real nature of the act of a German on seeking naturalisation in a foreign country. Against such attempts to deceive the nation of which a German, for his own ends, seeks to become a member, it may be difficult to continue effective measures, but at any rate we should make the attempt. Naturalisation is primarily a favour granted to the aHen, and is only in very rare and exceptional cases an advantage to the State which grants it. Therefore it ought to be hedged about with such restrictions as will make it as certain as any laws can do, that the individual seeking it divests himself of all his former allegiance. It is perfectly certain, as the journal before mentioned has remarked, that there are in 210 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND this country to-day many naturalised Germans who, if they had not taken out letters of naturaHsation (which are in effect letters of mark), would now be interned in some con- centration camp. They are chartered enemies, who can be compared to none so justly as those German spies at the front who penetrate the AUies' Hues by wearing British uniforms. The French Government have, unHke our own, been quick to see the danger that exists, and to cope with it. A Bill has been introduced into the French ParHament empowering the Government to withdraw naturalisation from persons who preserve their original nationality, or who, by reason of their attitude to the enemies of France, are judged unworthy of French nationality. The Stock Exchange has taken similar action. British citizenship is a privilege which in no case ought to be lightly conferred, and assuredly it should never be relieved from the obligations which properly accompany its great advantages. No man can serve two masters, at any rate when they are at war with one another ; and, to be just to the Germans, they have not even tried. We know that the German espionage organisation in England was set up some time about the year 1905, so that there has been plenty of time for the German General Staff to get together quite a number of agents who, under our present system, fulfil all the demands of our naturaHsation laws. We must make this more difficult in the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 211 future, remembering that the naturalised German is at least as much an object of suspicion as his non-naturalised brother. Residence of aliens, whether naturalised or not, in the immediate vicinity of our dockyards, naval bases, and important strategical positions should be stopped, once and for all. We know how in many recent cases the activities of the German agent have been concentrated upon these points, where the most valuable information is often to be picked up, and if we are indeed to make an end of spies, this closing of certain areas to aliens is one of the first and most important steps to take.* I have just heard of a case in one of our most important garrison towns, where, for years past, a shop overlooking the barracks has been in German occupation without apparently any business whatever being done ; the stock was practically allpwed to rot in the windows, and certainly the volume of trade was not enough to pay the rent. We * Thirty Miles Inland : Military Orders to East Coast Aliens. — Notices to quit coastal towns adjoining the Tyneside district were yesterday served by the police on behalf of the military authorities upon persons regarded as undesirable residents. The people affected include enemy aliens and natural- ised aliens of both sexes, also British-born descendants of aliens, including even the second generation. Exceptions have be^ made in cases of advanced age and extreme youthfulness. New addresses must be approved by the military. Notice* were also served on German residents in Sunderland to leave the town and district and move into an area approved by the military authorities. The order applies to men, women, and children, whether naturalised or not, and must be obeyed within eight days. The approved area wiU be some inland place about thirty miles from the coast. — Daily Maz7,|December 30th, 1914. 212 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND can form our own conclusions as to the real object of such estabUshments. Not very long ago Captain Persius, the well-known German naval expert, described, with his tongue in his cheek, the ease with which he was able to get information at certain British dockyards, and we know that many foreign visitors have been allowed practically free access to many of our battle- ships and to the naval ports. The case of the undergraduates who posed as foreign princes and were shown over one of our Dreadnoughts will be well remembered. All this kind of thing must certainly be put an end to in the future. 'The question of wireless is also another matter to which we shall have to give con- siderable attention. It is very much a question whether we should not, in future, adopt some stricter system of compulsory registration of all wireless plant sold and worked in this country. We all hope, of course, that after the present war we shall see a long period of undisturbed peace, but not even that assurance ought to be allowed to bUnd us to future danger, any more than the belief that a German invasion of Great Britain is an impossibiUty should cause us to relax, for an instant, our preparations to meet it should it come. Wireless is Hkely to play a growing part in our world communica- tions, and the tremendous possibilities which attend its unauthorised use have to (be reckoned with. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 213 I confess that I should have hesitated to introduce even into a novel such an incident as a German officer attempting to escape from this country packed up in a large box. Yet such a case has just been reported ; the man was detected and arrested by no more than a lucky accident just as the case was about to be placed on board the liner which was to convey it to Rotterdam. Examination of the case showed how carefully the plans for the escape had been made, and certainly there is a very strong suggestion that the affair could not have been undertaken without active assistance from persons outside the prison from which the officer had escaped. And those persons were spies. It was stated, I see, that the man is beUeved to have been trying to get over to Germany with important information, and in all proba- bility this is true ; it is not at all likely that anyone would have adopted such a desperate expedient merely to escape from custody. The incident, in its practical bearings, is not of great importance, since it is not a plan likely to be adopted except by someone who was absolutely desperate, and obviously we cannot examine every packing case shipped abroad, even in war time. For us the im- portance of the incident lies in the light it throws upon the skill and resource of the German secret agents, and the need for straining every nerve to cope with their activity. One cannot but admire the courage and resource of a man who was ready to take 214 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND the risks involved in this particularly daring adventure. Whatever system we decide to adopt to protect ourselves against espionage in the future, there is no question that the entire matter ought to be in the hands of one central authority, with very wide powers of inquiry and action. We must put an end once and for all to the idiotic — no other word is strong enough — position in which Mr. McKenna is able to say that outside London the spy-peril is no concern of his, and that he has no power of action. Whether we complete and extend the operations of the Confidential Department, or whether some new organisation is brought into being, the matter of espionage for the country as a whole ought to be centralised in the hands of a single authority. I know certain people are likely to raise a grumble that the cost will be considerable. Supposing it is ? No one suggests that we should spend, as Germany has been spending, £720,000 a year on spying on our neighbours ; all that we need to do is to estabUsh a com- plete system of contra-espionage, and look after the people who want to spy on us. In doing this, surely the expenditure of a few thousands a year would be money well invested. In France a system has been adopted — too late, unfortunately, so far as the present war is concerned — by which the public are invited to co-operate in the work of checking the activities of the spies, by giving to the GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 215 proper authority information of any suspicious cases coming to their notice. My view is that a somewhat similar pro- cedure should be adopted here. In this way public opinion would be educated up to the importance of the subject, and a great deal of valuable information would be acquired. It is certain, of course, that much of this information would be valueless, but it would be the duty of the special department to separate the chaff from the wheat, and to see that every suspicious case was duly inquired into. Apart from anything else, this action by the pubUc would, in itself, give the spies to pause, for they would reaUse how much more difficult it would be for them to carry on their nefarious work undetected. I come now to perhaps the most unpleasant feature of the spy problem — the possibility of our betrayal by traitors in our own ranks. I am proud to think that, in this respect, we are perhaps better off than any nation under the sun, but at the same time, there have been, in recent years, one or two proved cases, and, as I have already said, a good many where grounds existed for very grave sus- picion. However mortifying it may be to our national pride, we cannot overlook the possibility of our secrets being sold to the enemy by men of our own blood. In this connection, I cannot do better than quote an instructive passage from Paul I^enoir's masterly book on " The German 216 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND Spy System in France," one of the most complete and fascinating exposures of German machinations that has ever been written, and a veritable mine of information on German aims and methods. lycnoir relates how, on one occasion, he had a long conversa- tion with a very distinguished member of the German spy administration who had expressed the wish to meet him. In the course of their conversation, the German said : — " Ah ! If only you knew how many of your politicians who shout and declaim in France demanding the suppression of your Secret Service funds — if you only knew how many of those men are drawing thumping good salaries out of our Secret Service funds ; if only you knew what proportion of their election expenses is paid by tK every four years ! " I do not suppose for a moment that we have in England anything of this kind ; the class of men who secure election to the Hotase of Commons is no doubt above temptation. I, however, mention this instance, revealed be it remembered by a Frenchman working hard in his country's cause, to show how very far the German espionage bureau is prepared to go to seduce men from their natural allegiance, and convert them into the most dangerous enemies of their country. And, with regret I confess it, we have to face the fact that even in our own services there are some whose honour is not proof against the lavish stream of German gold. How to detect and defeat them is indeed a GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND 217 difficult problem ; all we can say is that in this, as in other matters, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. But at least we can say that when they are caught these men ought to be made to pay a terrible price for their treachery, as an example and a deterrent to others. There must be no illegal sentences of death, as in the Ahlers case. There must be no paltering with this blackest of crimes, and no concession to the sentimentaUsts of the cocoa-Press. In conclusion, I appeal to my readers to believe that I do feel, after many years' study of this subject, that in German espion- age lies one of the greatest dangers our beloved country has to face. I earnestly appeal to them to do all in their power to assist in forming a vigorous public opinion, that shall insist that, at whatever cost, this canker in our public life shall be rooted out. We must — and we can, if we devote our attention to it — make an end to the spy in our midst, and make it impossible that our hospitality shall be abused by those who are plotting our downfall. To do this a strong and healthy public opinion, which shall drive supine officials to determined action, is the first and greatest requisite. Without that— and it is the purpose of this book to assist in rousing it — we shall drift back into the old rut of contemptuous and incredulous neglect, and it is more than probable that our last state will be worse than our first. 218 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI,AND We can rest assured that Germany will never willingly give up the system that has paid her such enormous profits ; it is for us to meet craft with craft, to smash her spy organisation, to show her that we are determined that we will put an end to an insidious form of attack which in time of peace — whatever we may think of espionage in time of war — is nothing short of moral and poUtical corruption in its worst and most hideous form. Another point which has apparently been overlooked by the public is the fact that as recently as January 14th the United States Embass3^ acting for Germany and Austria, announced the astounding fact that German men over 55, Austrian men over 50, with all those physically unfit for military service, as well as all women of both countries, may leave Great Britain and return to the land of their birth I The Ambassador stated that anyone wishing to do so should apply to the Home Office (Permits Department) for the necessary permission ; and, further, that the Austro-Hungarian Government were organis- ing personally-conducted parties to Vienna and Budapest ! Now, it is to be sincerely hoped that the Home Office (Permits Department) will not consider any man who has a weak heart, a faulty leg, or bad teeth, or is over 50, incapable of acts of espionage. Further, as alien women have been allowed to move freely about the country, and as our Confidential Department GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 219 knows that the enemy has already made good use of the fair sex as spies, is it really too much to expect that the Permits Depart- ment will — if aliens are allowed to leave at all — grant the necessary passes with a very sparing hand, and submit to severe examina- tion anyone desirous of joining these per- sonally-conducted parties which sound so delightfully alluring ? But to the man-in-the-street this official announcement of the United States Embassy, especially after the prosecution of Mr. Ahlers, must cause considerable dismay. Are we to allow these enemy aliens who have been among us ever since the outbreak of war to return, and carry with them all the informa- tion they have been able to gather ? Surely this is a most important point to which public attention should at once be directed ! If the Home Office are actually about to issue permits to enemy aHens to return home, then why bother any further about espionage ? We may just as well accept Mr. McKenna's assurances, close our eyes, and fold our arms. Further, with the illuminating discussion in the House of lyords on January 6th, 1915, the Briton — as apart from the poHtician, or the supporter of the cocoa-Press — surely cannot be satisfied. The Government spokes- men told us that we still had among us no fewer than 27,000 Germans and Austrians at liberty, and of this number 2,998 were living in prohibited areas — an increase of 37 220 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND since November 7th ! The lack of organisa- tion for dealing with these aliens is the most deplorable feature of the administration. There are three separate authorities. The navy, miUtary and police all act according to their own interpretations of the Defence of the Realm Act, and when one or other takes drastic steps for the removal of alien enemies, somebody who stands in the background reverses the process. A truly amazing state of affairs. The splendid efforts of the Earl of Ports- mouth, the Earl of Crawford, Lord Leith of Fyvie, Viscount St. Aldwyn, Lord St. Davids, the Earl of Selborne, Viscount Galway and Lord Curzon made in the House of Lords seem, alas ! to be of no avail, for, while on November 25th Mr. McKenna gave details showing the distribution of male alien enemies, the latest figures suppHed in the House of Lords on January 6th by Viscount Allendale show : — Nov. 25th Jan. 6th 35 59 Aberdeen to Berwick Northumberland to the Wash The Wash to Thames Estuary Thames Estuary to Dorsetshire Devonport to Plymouth 543 437 54 38 136 3 161 Total 771 695 Our authorities have actually admitted that from November 7th to January 7th, 49 more alien enemies have gone to live on the East Coast of Scotland and on the South GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI.AND 221 Coast of England ! And Mr. McKenna has permitted them to do so ! Surely by the ofEcial assurances of safety an attempt has been made to lull us to sleep — and we are now being slowly lulled into the hands of the enemy ! ' In these same areas were 2,190 women alien enemies on November 25th, as compared with 2,303 at the present time. The figures show that there has been a decrease of 106 in the neighbourhood of the Yorkshire raid. But there has been an increase of 22 on the South Coast, and of 27 on the East Coast of Scotland. Under whose authority, one may surely ask, have 49 alien enemies been permitted to settle on the Scotch and South Coasts ? With these 27,000 alien enemies free to move five miles in each direction from any area in which they may be living, and power to make longer journeys if they can get a permit — not a very difficult thing to do — the Home Office is adding to the danger by encouraging a movement for the release of some of the 15,000 alien enemies interned originally because they were held to be dangerous. The Chief Constables who are being asked to certify such as might be released, may, I quite think with the Evening News, be pardoned for giving a liberal inter- pretation of the request. Surely every sane man must agree with the opinion expressed by the same out-spoken journal, namely, that with some 35,000 222 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND Germans andAustrians, registered and natural- ised, moving freely in our midst, a Government which permits that freedom is taking risks which it ought not to take. The German Government, in their wisdom, are not guilty of such folly. Every British subject, even those who have Uved there for forty years, and can hardly speak their mother-tongue, is interned. Why, if a naturalised German is known to be an enemy of the country of his adoption — be he waiter or financier — should any tenderness be displayed towards him ? He is an enemy, and whatever I^ord Haldane or Mr. McKenna may say, he must be treated as such. I w^rite only as an Englishman fighting for his own land. I repeat that I have no party pohtics, but only the stern resolve that we must win this war, and that all who lean to the enemy in any manner whatever must go, and be swept with their fine houses, their wives and their social surroundings into oblivion. To-day we, as Britons, are fighting for our existence. To give our alien enemies a chance of espionage is a criminal act. Sir Henry Dalziel advocates the constitution of an Aliens Board to deal with the whole subject. He evidently has no faith in the present indecision, for he has expressed him- self in favour of moving aU alien enemies fifty miles from the coast. The flabby policy of indecision is, one must agree, a mistake. GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND 223 No one wants to embarrass the Government, who in so many ways have done admirably, but, in the face of the serious dangers which must arise from the presence of 27,000 alien enemies within our gates at this moment, even implicit confidence must not stand in the way of a stern and effective national defence. And the removal of the spy danger is, I maintain, eminently a matter of national defence. It is for the public to make a stem and unmistakable demand. 3jC 3p Jp ^ ^ ^h The following Hnes, from an anonymous pen, appeared on December 10th in the Evening News, which has performed a pat- riotic work in pointing out the peril of spies, and demanding that they should be interned. Though amusing, the words really contain a good deal of truth : — " Will you walk into my parlour ? " said the Kaiser to the Spy, " For I've lots of work to give you, and the pay is very high. And you've only got to send me a report from day to day. All about the English people, and the things they do and say. " Th^re is Fritz and Franz and Josef, though their names you may not know. You may write to them and see them, hut as ' Number So-and-So,' And should you meet your brother or your mother ai the game, You are not to recognise them / they're numbers just the same. 224 GERMAN SPIES IN ENGI^AND ** You will travel through the country in the name of Henry Jones, Or as Donald P. McScotty, selling artificial stones ; You will rent a modest dwelling in the shadow of a base, And when nobody is looking you will photograph the place *' Then * Hoch ' unto your Kaiser, * Am Tag * your daily cry, God bless our Krupps and Zeppelins, the victory is nigh. God bless our shells ! and dum-dums I Kultur shall fight her way ; God, Emperor, and Fatherland in one Almighty sway." THE END Printed by W. Mate & Soas, Ltd., Bournemouth. 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